Re: New paper on pre-Archaeopteryx coelurosaurian dinosaurs

[Jason Brougham <jaseb@amnh.org>]

I hope that no one goes overboard about the new Xu et al. paper. As the authors 
state themselves: "such a  phylogenetic hypothesis would have significant 
implications for the reconstruction of the theropod - bird transition but it 
has yet to be tested by quantitative analysis."

Indeed, the reader may wonder why the authors would publish an alternative 
phylogeny before doing any analysis.

-Jason