RE: Theropod Database Christmas update

[Michael Mortimer <mickey_mortimer111@msn.com>]

(a month ago, before getting lost in my inbox) Tim Williams wrote-

> BTW, what's the source/citation for putting _Yaverlandia_ in the 
> Troodontidae?

Nothing published.  Sullivan (2006) noted "Presently, Yaverlandia bitholus 
is being restudied by Darren Naish, who believes it to be a theropod, based 
on a number of characters seen in the holotype, including: (1) bilobed 
cerebral concavity; (2) narrow olfactory tract; (3) ventral concave orbital 
margins; (4) small, closely appressed olfactory bulbs, among other features 
(D. Naish, pers. communication, 2004)."  I added it to my coelurosaur 
analysis (as the small olfactory lobes are a coelurosaurian character) and 
it came out next to Saurornithoides junior, largely because both taxa seem 
to have rugose postorbitals.  But that's pretty weak evidence.

> Also, I'm curious about whatever happened to "Tonouchisaurus", an 
> undescribed taxon (nomen > nudum) that was said to be a primitive 
> tyrannosaur. Is there a specimen number?

Still undescribed.  No specimen number that I know.  Barsbold did tell me it 
is now known to have three manual digits, so there goes the original reason 
for placing it in Tyrannosauroidea.  Of course, we now know basal 
tyrannosauroids (Dilong, Guanlong, Tanycolagreus?) were tridactyl too.

Mickey Mortimer