Re: Asilisaurus kongwe, the Oldest Avian-line Archosaur and the Early Diversification of Ornithodira

[Erik Boehm <erikboehm07@yahoo.com>]

Unless one defines Avian line archosaurs, as archosaurs more closely related to 
Birds, than crocodiles.

If you look at extant archosaurs, and define only two lines, based on the two 
extant groups, dinosaurs, and things very closely related to dinosaurs, would 
fall into the avian line, whereas something like postosuchus would fall into 
the Crocodile line, despite not leading to crocodiles.

They definitely need to further explain what they mean by avian line

--- On Wed, 3/3/10, Raptorial Talon <raptorialtalon@gmail.com> wrote:

> From: Raptorial Talon <raptorialtalon@gmail.com>
> Subject: Re: Asilisaurus kongwe, the Oldest Avian-line Archosaur and the 
> Early  Diversification of Ornithodira
> To: William_Parker@nps.gov
> Cc: "DML" <dinosaur@usc.edu>
> Date: Wednesday, March 3, 2010, 11:11 AM
> "Phylogenetic analysis places
> Asilisaurus kongwe gen. et sp. nov. as
> an avian-line archosaur and a member of the Silesauridae,
> which is
> here considered the sister taxon to Dinosauria."
> 
> Wait . . . what? How can something be "avian-line" if it's
> not part of
> the clade ancestral to Aves?
> 
> Or is that their point?
>