Re: Therizinosauria Cladogram

[Dinogeorge@aol.com]

In a message dated 1/11/02 10:42:59 AM Pacific Standard Time, 
fam.jansma@worldonline.nl writes:

<< Nope, the correct name for the family is Therizinosauria, at least,
 according to "the Complete Dinosaur". Don't no if it is illegal to quote a
 small part of the book, but here it is anyway:
 
 "Russel en Dong (1993) accepted Perle's interpretations; according to them,
 the morphology of Alxasaurus confirms a very close relationship of
 _Therizinosaurus_ to other segnosaurians. In consequence, Russel and Dong
 considered the family name Segnosauridae (Perle 1979) to be a junior synonym
 of Therizinosauridae (Maleev 1954)" >>

We're not talking about the family name here, we're talking about a 
higher-order taxon (Segnosauria, not Segnosauridae). ICZN rules do not cover 
such taxa, but priority is still followed by convention these days. With 
regard to family, Therizinosauridae has priority over Segnosauridae of course 
(although I think they're sister groups and not synonyms).

Segnosauria would be the stem taxon defined as all theropods closer to 
Segnosaurus than to the next most closely related theropod stem group (take 
your pick here). If you like ranks, I suggest Segnosauria be a suborder 
within the order Theropoda.