Re: T-Tip

[The-Diehl@t-online.de (Thomas Diehl)]

Brian Choo wrote:

> Hi...checked out the website.
>
> Its certainly a fresh concept and I hope it succeeds in the long run. It is
> good that you are brave enough to communicate your ideas.
>
> A couple of points:
>
> Firstly, I assume you mean C. longipes, not bauri...bauri is the specific
> name of the Ghost Ranch Coelophysis.

 Yes, I do. It is alitlle mistake, but this two genuses sound very similar in 
German. So, again for everyone: It is C. longipes.

> Firstly, Alioramus is a VERY POOR candidate for comparative analyses. It is
> only known from ONE very fragmentary skeleton and skull (GI 3141/1 in the
> Geological Institute, Ulan Bator, Mongolia). The silhouette you have on
> your site seems to be taken from a picture used in a variety of
> publications, including the Macmillan Encyclopaedia of Prehistoric Animals.
> This is a very hypothetical picture!!! Have you read up on other early
> tyrannosaurs? (Alectrosaurus from Mongolia, Siamotyrannus from Thailand).
> The earliest theropod with tyrannosaur-liek features (particularly the
> braincase) is Stokesosaurus clevelandi from Late Jurassic North America.
> Its not a good idea to put together and evolutionary scenario by choosing
> just three species and ignoring a host of others.

 Hm... I never heard of Siamotyrannus and Stokeosaurus (especially this one 
could be interesting for me). I will surely look to find somthing about them.

> Number of fingers is not a very good criterion for determining
> relationships... For example in one family on modern lizards (skinks) we
> have closely related species with between five to two fingers on each hand.
> Ostrom did suggest that Comp. had a two fingered hand but this cannot be
> proven as the hand bones are scattered to varying degrees over the slab of
> rock it lies upon. The very closely related furry Sinosauropteryx from
> China (placed in the Compsognathidae)
> definately had three fingers.

 I'm not even sure about Sinosauropteryx as an Compsognathidae, but the 
argument 
about the fingers is right. It just was the point that brought me to that idea, 
together with the long distance in time between Compsognathus and the 
tyrannosaurids, I knew.

> Oddly enough, the group most closely related to tyrannosaurs appear to be
> the ostrich-mimic ornithomimosaurs which share a number of anatomical key
> anatomical features (arctometatarsalian foot and other features of the
> limbs, low, rugose nasal horn etc...). Troodontids also appear to have been
> close relatives.

 Interesting. I don't know what I should say about the Troodontids (raptor-like 
claws, a perlvis, similar to the ornitishian's) but I will also look about 
this. 
Let's see, what new info I'll get. Perhaps I can build it in in a way, it 
works, 
if not I'll have to rethink.

 Better luck,
 Thomas Diehl!