RE: Deinonychosaurs and "Eusaurischia"

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

> From: "Grant Harding" <granth@cyberus.ca>
>
> 1.  Is the unnamed deinonychosaur NGMC 91 now considered to be a
> specimen of Sinornithosaurus millennii?  Or is it still considered to be
> an unnamed-deinonychosaur-that-may-or-may-not-be-Sinornithosaurus?

Yes.  (Well, okay, the latter: no one has yet published a detailed
demonstration of its affinity with Sinornithosaurus.)

> 2.  Is "Eusaurischia" now an official name?
>

Well, rules for non-species, non-genus, non-family group, non-Linnean names
are no where near as formalized (yet) as for those categories: hence, it was
"official" since the publication of Padian, Hutchinson & Holtz (1999).  On
the flip side, though, the proof is in the pudding, and the pudding of
taxonomy is use.  So far I know of only a few uses of Eusaurischia
subsequent to our paper, but that may change soon.

                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