Re: T-Tip

["Mickey Mortimer" <mickey_mortimer@email.msn.com>]

Jaime Headden wrote-

>  Actually, recent analyses, such as those
>contemporized in Padian, 1997 [Enc. of Din.] and
>Padian, Hutchinson, and Holtz (1999) and the
>forthcoming Holtz GAIA paper, previously presented in
>the 1999 Ostrom and SVP symposia, suggest that
>Arctometatarsalia is polyphyletic and of little use
>phylogenetically; likewise Bullatosauria, but this
>group can actually be rescued.

I thought Holtz's newest analysis supported the
tyrannosaur/ornithomimid/troodontid group in half of the most parsimonious
trees (with troodontids being maniraptorans in the other half).

><Sure, an arctometatarsalian metatarsus is shared by
>all three, but is absent in the Thai ornithomimid>
>
>  The what? Pardon my stupidity, of course ... :)

Buffetaut and Suteethorn (1998) briefly described ornithomimid remains from
the Sao Khua Formation (Hauterivian-Valanginian) of Thailand.  Various
postcranial bones are known and a metatarsus is illustrated.  This
metatarsus exhibits a third metatarsal visible in anterior view all the way
up the metatarsus.  It's very narrow in the proximal half, but certainly
visible, therefore not arctometatarsalian.  reference is-

Buffetaut and Suteethorn, 1998. Early Cretaceous dinosaurs from Thailand and
their bearing on the early evolution and biogeographical history of some
groups of Cretaceous dinosaurs. in Lucas, Kirkland and Estep eds. Lower and
Middle Cretaceous Terrestrial Ecosystems, New Mexico Museum of Natural
History and Science, Bulletin 14 205-210

>  Has the dromaeosaur/coelurid/oviraptorosaur
>condition of a pinched mtIII, but without contact of
>II and IV; therefore, not the arctometatarsalian
>condition as per Holtz (1994)

By "coelurid" do you mean Coelurus fragilis?  I didn't think metatarsal
material was known.  Is this information from the new, undescribed skeleton?

Mickey Mortimer