Re: Coelurosaur phylogeny

[David Marjanovic <david.marjanovic@gmx.at>]

> David Marjanovic wrote- 
> 
> > BTW: I've included Scansoriopterygidae in my bird analysis. 
 
As one OTU, I must add. 
 
> I think you'd need more than avians in the ingroup if you're going to 
> show Scansoriopteryx is avialan. 
 
Of course. I included it (merged with *Epidendrosaurus*) because you got 
it as the sistergroup of *Archaeopteryx* + short-tailed birds. Presented 
with an allzero outgroup as the alternative, and chock full of 
plesiomorphies, it clusters with the clade that it shares its few derived 
states with. To really test what it is I'd need a coelurosaur analysis, 
and that's what I want to avoid because... you know how much work that is. 
:-) Isn't intended to be published after all, and should be finished in 
less than a month. 
 
Perhaps the flange on manual phalanx II-1 will pull that clade apart and 
let *S/J* cluster with the short-tailed birds (I coded the character as 
absent in Scansoriopterygidae, and in Archie where some say a teeny tiny 
rudiment is present). I doubt it but haven't tried yet. 
 
But I do think it is interesting that nothing I know except *Microraptor*, 
*Archaeopteryx*, *Rahonavis*, *S/J*, and *Scansoriopteryx* has middle tail 
vertebrae that are over twice as long as the 1st one. Do troodontids have 
that, too? 
 
And <think, think> including Archie & friends is not a lot less arbitrary 
than including Archie, which has been sought pretty far away from 
Avebrevicauda by some... I've added *Microraptor* (again a merger of the 2 
species) but not run that analysis yet. 
 
>    `--+--Enigmosauria (incl. Protarchaeopteryx) 
 
Interestingly basal. 
 
>       `--*--Arctometatarsalia (incl. Alvarezsauridae, Avimimus, 
> Archaeornithoides) 
 
We'll have got all imaginable positions for them soon, don't you think? 
:-) 

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