Re: Sinosauropteryx ischium

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

Mickey Mortimer (Mickey_Mortimer11@email.msn.com) wrote:

<I've divided "Compsognathidae" into three OTU's (Compsognathus, 
Sinosauropteryx, Santana
compsognathid) for my latest analysis to see if it remains monophyletic.  
Perhaps its members and
other "basal coelurosaurs" will actually have stable positions relative to each 
other for once.  I
can only hope. There are some coelurosaurian characters present in 
Sinosauropteryx- pneumatic
quadrate, only three metacarpals, no supracetabular crest, tall ascending 
process, etc.>

  Apart from the fact that the Santana form appears to be an undiagnosable 
taxon based on
similarities to *Compsognathus*, it is a form that may easily be called 
Compsognathidae indet,
metatax., there is also the form *Aristosuchus*, mentioned often enough, which 
is a confirmed
British Barremian (?) compsognathid (Naish, 1999, 2000). Thus there are three 
named taxa, with one
specimen referred to *Sinosauropteryx* which pertains to a possibly new taxon 
closer to birds than compsognathids.

=====
Jaime A. Headden

  Little steps are often the hardest to take.  We are too used to making leaps 
in the face of adversity, that a simple skip is so hard to do.  We should all 
learn to walk soft, walk small, see the world around us rather than zoom by it.

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