RE: Rugops: some questions

[Nick Pharris <npharris@umich.edu>]

Quoting "Thomas R. Holtz, Jr." <tholtz@geol.umd.edu>:

> That might well be, but they evidence they use to support this is the lack
> of a hierarchical structure within Abelisauroidea that matches any
> particular break up pattern.

Actually, the phylogeny presented in the _Rugops_/_Spinostropheus_ paper is
consistent with the Africa-first hypothesis:

-ABELISAURIDAE
  |--Rugops
  |?-Ilokelesia
  +--UNNAMED NODE
      |--Abelisaurus
      +--CARNOTAURINAE (Rajasaurus + (Majungatholus + Carnotaurus))

Note that ABELISAURIDAE are Pan-Gondwanan, but the interior node (Abelisaurus +
CARNOTAURINAE) is restricted to S.Am. and Indo-Madagascar.  But as Dr. Tom
noted, we're still a long way from finding everything there is to be found.

Nick Pharris
Department of Linguistics
University of Michigan