RE: ... Maniraptoran Tyrannosaurs

["Jaime A. Headden" <qilongia@yahoo.com>]

Nicjolas Gardner (n_gardner637@hotmail.com) wrote:

<Microvenator is a possible member of the Elmisauridae which is what I seem to 
pick up from other
dinosaur sites. Caenagnathus is not a valid taxa whereas Elmisaurus is 
therefore the clade should
be renamed to fit valid internal members.>

1) This is not how the ICZN sees this, as the body that governs such things. 
The first published
"family" name that includes any included taxon, even if that taxon has been 
made a junior synonym
of another taxon, is still valid. Hence, Caenagnathidae Sternberg, 1940 has 
priority over
Elmisauridae Osmólska, 1981.

2) There is no real analysis that I am aware of that has ever published the 
idea that
*Microvenator* is a member of the Caenagnathidae (= Elmisauridae) except for 
Greg Paul's (1988)
conservative phylogeny. Further analyses suggest that *Microvenator* lacks the 
features which
diagnose the Caenagnathoidea (= Oviraptoroidea in your usage), and while an 
oviraptorosaur, is
perhaps a basal one.


=====
Jaime A. Headden

  Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhr-gen-ti-na
  Where the Wind Comes Sweeping Down the Pampas!!!!

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