RE: What group has the most work that needs to be done?

[Ken.Carpenter@dmns.org]

> Are maginocephalians closer to Iguanodon than is 
> Hypsilophodon? Maybe. Are the Middle Jurassic 
> "hypsilophodontians" actually ornithopods? Hard to say at present.

Personally, I don't believe in this group (Maginocephalia). The
characters uniting ceratopsians and pachycephalosaurs are  too few. I
see that Dinosauria II has abandoned this artificial group.

Kenneth Carpenter, Ph.D. 
Curator of Lower Vertebrate Paleontology 
and Chief Preparator 
Department of Earth Sciences 
Denver Museum of Nature & Science 
2001 Colorado Blvd. 
Denver, CO 80205 USA

Ken.Carpenter@DMNS.org
ph: 303-370-6392/ or 6403 
fx: 303-331-6492 

for PDFs of my reprints, info about the Cedar Mtn. Project, etc. see:
https://scientists.dmns.org/sites/kencarpenter/default.aspx
for fun, see also:
http://dino.lm.com/artists/display.php?name=Kcarpenter



 

> -----Original Message-----
> From: owner-dinosaur@usc.edu [mailto:owner-dinosaur@usc.edu] 
> On Behalf Of Thomas R. Holtz, Jr.
> Sent: Wednesday, April 20, 2005 2:32 PM
> To: nygdan@yahoo.com; dinosaur@usc.edu
> Subject: RE: What group has the most work that needs to be done?
> 
> > From: owner-dinosaur@usc.edu 
> [mailto:owner-dinosaur@usc.edu]On Behalf 
> > Of Robert J. Schenck
> > Sent: Wednesday, April 20, 2005 3:04 PM
> > To: dinosaur@usc.edu
> > Subject: What group has the most work that needs to be done?
> >
> >
> > What group of dinosaurs has the most work that needs to be done on 
> > them, and how much of that need is based on lack of workers versus 
> > lack of specimins?
> >
> > For example, theropods receive a lot of attention, and 
> there's been a 
> > lot of recent discoveries that seem to be shaking things up 
> (just in 
> > the last year or so, let alone the crazy chinese feathered 
> specimins 
> > from around the millenium).
> >
> > But what other groups can use a lot of work and show a lot 
> of promise 
> > in your opinions?
> > Hadrosaurs?  Prosauropods?  Armoured Dinosaurs in general?
> 
> Prosauropods are getting a good working over at SVP this 
> year! There's a special symposium on there.
> 
> Hadrosaurs: I'd really like to see a good species-level 
> analysis simultaneously using the North American and Asian 
> forms (and the stragglers elsewhere) from both 
> "Hadrosaurinae" and Lambeosaurinae. Some recent papers have 
> suggested that some or many of the traditional "hadroaurines" 
> may be closer to lambeosaurines than to such taxa as 
> Edmontosaurus. And establishing the species-level 
> relationships of (among others) Edmontosaurus regalis, 
> Anatosaurus annectens, Anatotitan copei, and Shantungosaurus 
> giganteus (or is it all Edmontosaurus?) or Hypacrosaurus 
> altirhinus, Nipponosaurus (?= Hypacrosaurus) sachalinensis, 
> Olorotitan arharensis, "Hypacrosaurus" stebingeri, and 
> Corythosaurus casuarius.
> 
> But I would say the BIG task that needs doing (and is being 
> done, but at least two different workers) is testing the 
> current consensus (i.e., the Sereno 1986) relationships among 
> Ornithischia as a whole. No longer are we stuck using single 
> multi-taxon OTUs because of the slow speed of the software 
> and hardware; so let's start seeing the simultaneous analysis 
> of 80 or 100 taxa and hundreds of characters.
> 
> Are maginocephalians closer to Iguanodon than is 
> Hypsilophodon? Maybe. Are the Middle Jurassic 
> "hypsilophodontians" actually ornithopods? Hard to say at present.
> 
> So if dino-phylogenetics is what you are after, this is 
> probably the big frontier.
> 
>               Thomas R. Holtz, Jr.
>               Vertebrate Paleontologist
> Department of Geology         Director, Earth, Life & Time Program
> University of Maryland                College Park Scholars
>       Mailing Address:
>               Building 237, Room 1117
>               College Park, MD  20742
> 
> http://www.geol.umd.edu/~tholtz/
> http://www.geol.umd.edu/~jmerck/eltsite
> Phone:        301-405-4084    Email:  tholtz@geol.umd.edu
> Fax (Geol):  301-314-9661     Fax (CPS-ELT): 301-405-0796
> 
>