Re: THERIZINOSAUROIDS

[Tom Holtz <tholtz@geochange.er.usgs.gov>]

>Tom Holtz mentioned suggestions that therizinosauroids were oviraptorid
>relatives. Can we read about this suggestion anywhere? Please give source.

See your next sentence.

>I haven't yet seen the Alxasaurus paper (Canadian Jour. Earth Sci. yes?), and,
>at present, have difficulty comprehending them as theropods.

Bingo!  That's the place.  Hans Sues also presented a cladogram at last SVP
which also had an oviraptorosaurian clade, and I have found a similar
result with a new analysis.  However, almost all the similarities are in
the skull, and if you just use postcranial material, therizinosauroids
share derived characters with dromaeosaurids & birds!

                                
                 Thomas R. Holtz, Jr.                  Phone: 703-648-5280      
                 Vertebrate Paleontologist         Fax:    703-648-5420
tholtz@geochange.er.usgs.gov ------------>       th81@umail.umd.edu
U.S. Geological Survey          ------------->       University of Maryland
Branch of Paleontology & Stratigraphy ---->       Department of Geology
MS 970 National Center
Reston, VA  22092               ------------->        College Park, MD  20742
                                                          U.S.A.