Ornitholeste & buds... (was RE: semilunate carpal)

["Thomas R. Holtz, Jr." <tholtz@geol.umd.edu>]

> From: Tim Williams [mailto:twilliams_alpha@hotmail.com]
>
> Tom Holtz wrote:
>
> > > Has _Proceratosaurus_ ever been considered a maniraptor?
> >
> >In at least some of the most parsimonious trees in my Ostrom Symposium
> >paper, a Proceratosaurus-Ornitholestes clade comes out within
> Maniraptora.
>
> I'm guessing this is using Gauthier's definition of Maniraptora
> (= all taxa
> closer to Neornithes than to _Ornithomimus_), and followed by
> Holtz (1996),
> rather than Sereno's newer definition (= all descendants of the
> most recent
> common ancestor of _Oviraptor_ and Neornithes).

It used the correct definition, yes. :-)

> I don't want to sound cheeky, but does this analysis take into
> account the
> exclusion of the referred manus (AMNH 587) from _Ornitholestes_?
>
Damn straight it did (as does the Gaia matrix, from which the Ostrom
Symposium matrix was derived).

                Thomas R. Holtz, Jr.
                Vertebrate Paleontologist
Department of Geology           Director, Earth, Life & Time Program
University of Maryland          College Park Scholars
                College Park, MD  20742
http://www.geol.umd.edu/~tholtz/tholtz.htm
http://www.geol.umd.edu/~jmerck/eltsite
Phone:  301-405-4084    Email:  tholtz@geol.umd.edu
Fax (Geol):  301-314-9661       Fax (CPS-ELT): 301-405-0796