Re: Where are the basal ornithischians...

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

>  Dzik, actually, has already compared the postcrania of *Silesaurus* and 
> basal
> dinosaurs and already indicated a dearth of ornithischian features,

That's of course true, but I've found several ornithischian features that 
Dzik didn't mention. The discussion (see archives of October 2003) ended 
with you pointing out that I had ignored the femoral characters, which is 
true, so I shut up.

> The case for *Silesaurus* having possible affinities to
> Ornithischia lies soley with the jaws,

Untrue, see above.

> Morphology of the
> teeth is said to resemble *Stagonolepis*, and whether mentioned or not, 
> the
> teeth of *Revueltosaurus,* neither of which it appears pertain to 
> dinosaurs,
> but to crurotarsans (the later is apparently a pseudosuchian per Parker et 
> al.
> [2005, _Proceedings of the Royal Society, B_ 272:963-969]).

It will certainly be very interesting in this respect to read the paper you 
mention. (For example, the absence of the 5th toe in *Silesaurus* is 
compatible with ornithischian as well as crocodylomorphan affinities.) I'll 
try to download it tomorrow, oops, later today...