RE: Senter 2004 - Renesto and Binelli 2005 (long)

[Christopher Taylor <gerarus@westnet.com.au>]

>    `--+--+--Coelurosauravus
>
>< l.p.h.: highly derived taxa so low on the tree?
>
>       |  |--Longisquama
>       |  `--Megalancosaurus
>< Logic problem here: L. and M. are nested within rib gliders? Again,  
>no common skull, manus, pedes, pelvic or pectoral patterns can be  
>seen here.
>
>  `--+--Icarosaurus
      `--[other diapsids]

Taking this tree as accurate and accepting _Coelurosauravus_ as a
rib-glider for the sake of argument, _Longisquama_ and _Megalancosaurus_
are not nested within rib gliders in it unless all other diapsids are as
well. It would seem much more likely to interpret rib-gliding as
homoplasious between _Coelurosauravus_ and _Icarosaurus_ than to
interpret rib-gliding as ancestral for the clade of most diapsids and
subsequently lost in the vast majority.

Only branching order is informative in a cladogram, not necessarily the
order taxa are in from top to bottom. Remember, the tree above is
exactly the same as

0--+--Longisquama
|  |--Megalancosaurus
|  `--Coelurosauravus
`--+--[other diapsids]
   `--Icarosaurus

or any other permutation of order you might think of that still retains
the same branching.

    Cheers,

        Christopher Taylor

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