Re: Coelurosauria Cladogram is here!

["T. Mike Keesey" <tmk@dinosauricon.com>]

On Wed, 29 Aug 2001, Grant Harding wrote:

> T. Mike Keesey wrote:
> > [Saururae] has been spelled both ways -- not sure which has priority. But 
> > there
> > are several possibly more appropriate choices for the name of this clade,
> > such as Archaeornithes or Archaeopterygiformes.
>
> Out of curiosity, what makes those names more appropriate than
> Saururae/Sauriurae?

Saururae/Sauriurae is the term Feduccia et al. use for a taxon that
includes _Archaeopteryx_, _Confuciusornithidae_, and _Enantiornithes_.
They consider it monophyletic, but it is probably paraphyletic
(non-ornithuran avians) -- note that they don't have any good avian
outgroups in their model. Since they also seem to want to add
_Caudipteryx_ and _Protarchaeopteryx_, they are probably making it
polyphyletic.

> (And if the phylogeny Mickey posted above continues to be supported,
> it's a moot point because there is nothing in the {_Archaeopteryx_ <--
> Neornithes} clade except _Archaeopteryx_ itself.)

As in many cladograms, and as per the original uses (I think) of
Archaeornithes and Archaeopterygiformes.

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