Re: Coelurosaur Analysis update, with Graciliraptor, Atrociraptor, Sinusonasus,

[Mickey Mortimer <Mickey_Mortimer111@msn.com>]

David Marjanovic wrote-

> > Note I used the definitions of Aves and Avialae sensu Chiappe (1996) and
> > Gauthier (1986) (Aves = Archaeopteryx lithographica + Vultur gryphus;
> > Avialae = Vultur gryphus <- Deinonychus antirrhopus).
>
> Oh! Usage of the 1986 definition has become so rare that I didn't get the
> idea you could have used it. :-]

I've been using it consistantly since I joined the DML.  Mostly due to
Padian et al.'s (1999) decision to define it that way.

> > `--+--+--Erlikosaurus
> >    |  `--Avimimus
>
> An artifact because their skulls are known? :-]

I think so.  Almost all the characters diagnosing it are cranial (long
external naris; toothless premaxilla; anteriorly toothless dentary; etc.).

> Good (?) to see that *Variraptor* is back among the dromies. Interesting
how
> *Rahonavis* hops back to its usual place... *Liaoningornis* is in a weird
> place, though.

I think Liaoningornis will go back to the Pygostylia once I add more
characters that can be coded for it.  The elongate sternum without processes
is probably causing it to group with Yandangornis.

> >                         `--+--Catalan nestling
>
> A priori I'd guess it's just too young that it could fall into a resolved
> place in a cladogram... would explain why it jumps around so much in your
> trees.

Perhaps.  But unlike the other enant juveniles I've been excluding recently
(Liaoxiornis, Eoenantiornis, etc.), I want to keep this one in the analysis
because it has such a well preserved and illustrated skull.

> >                                       `--+--Songlingornis
> >                                          `--+--Patagopteryx
> >                                             `--+--+--Yanornis
> >                                                |  `--Ornithurae
> >                                                `--+--Ambiortus
> >                                                   `--+--Apsaravis
> >                                                      `--Yixianornis
>
> How did you get *Yanornis* and *Yixianornis* that far apart?

Not sure.  I'm still waiting for Patagopteryx to be the basalmost member of
the above clade, as in Chiappe's and Clarke's studies.

Mickey Mortimer