Eotyrannus and T.rex

[Nick Gardner <nick.gardner@gmail.com>]

Hello all, this question is deliberately targetted at professional
paleontologists and undergraduate paleontology students. If someone
were to make the claim that the majority of paleontologists say
Eotyrannus is probably the direct ancestor, how would you counter
this? I've already pointed out its unique characteristics (pleurocoels
in sacral vertebrate, pneumatic formina in the nasal, etc.) and that
the authors don't make that claim in the original description, however
that was the response that came to that. Thanks.

Nick Gardner