Re: troodontids and tympanic recesses

["Mickey Mortimer" <Mickey_Mortimer111@msn.com>]

Phil Bigelow wrote-

> Assuming the standard 1=derived and 0=primitive, why do Currie and Norell
> et al. disagree on this character state?

A good question.  A miscoding by Norell et al. I presume, as Currie (1985)
was a detailed osteology of Troodon's skull, while Norell et al. (2001) was
just a data matrix.  This is further suggested by every other troodontid
having the derived state when it's possible to tell, even in Norell et al.'s
matrix.  And finally, one can examine the figures of Troodon's braincase,
especially in Currie and Zhao (1993).  I make a note of all conflicting
descriptions/codings I come across though, just to ensure a complete record.

Mickey Mortimer