PARVICURSORINAE

[Tetanurae <Tetanurae@aol.com>]

George Olskevsky wrote:
<<You are correct. If _Mononykus_ and _Parvicursor_ are classified in the same
subfamily, then it must be called Parvicursorinae according to ICZN rules.>>

Not necisarily.  From comments made by John Hutchenson the other day, it made
me look over the paper by (forgot their names, paper's at school, I'm at my
folks') on Parvicursor,  In their diagnosis of the family, they indeed point
out ways in which the new family is different from Mononykus.  Theoretically,
you could concieve this ambiguity as perhaps making the taxon Parvicursoridae
stem based, with Mononykus as the opposing anchor.  Whether or not this stem
falls within the node Mononykinae remains to be seen.  (Theoretically,
Shuvuuia *could* be a parvicursorid mononykine alvarezsaurid).

Aesthetically, I much prefer the name Parvicursorinae over Mononykinae,
but....  I will comment more on this when the March 19th ish of Nature reaches
western North America (should be mid-June or something :-) ......

One more thing....  Tom Holtz said he wanted to nickname Scipionyx 'Skippy the
dino.'  This just will not do....  In Italian, the letter combo s-c-i should
be said like the English shi, not ski.  So no skippy-saurus!

Peter Buchholz
Tetanurae@aol.com