Tyrannosauroid position (was RE: Jeholornis prima discussion)

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

> From: owner-dinosaur@usc.edu [mailto:owner-dinosaur@usc.edu]On Behalf Of
> MariusRomanus@aol.com
>
> In a message dated 7/31/2002 10:57:42 AM Eastern Daylight Time,
> david.marjanovic@gmx.at writes:
>
>
> > Arctometatarsalia only contains ornithomimosaurs
> >
>
> Ok...... I am now lost..... and need to ask...... So where are we
> putting the
> tyrannosaurs now adays and why???

At present nearly all phylogenies are converging on tyrannosauroids as basal
coelurosaurs, outside of (but possibly the sister group to)
Maniraptoriformes (which includes Ornithomimosauria, Oviraptorosauria,
Therizinosauroidea, Alvarezsauridae, Troodontidae, Dromaeosauridae, and
Avialae).  Sereno's analyses place tyrannosauroids WITHIN Maniraptoriformes,
and closer to birds than to ornithomimosaurs: however, trees only a single
step longer find the position I and others are finding.

See http://www.geol.umd.edu/~tholtz/G104/10421coel.htm for a (condensed)
figure of my nearly-most recent results.  (In my MOST recent, troodontids
come out as true deinonychosaurs).

Hope this helps.

                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