RE: Therizinosaurs

["Thomas R. Holtz, Jr." <tholtz@geol.umd.edu>]

> From: dbensen [mailto:dbensen@gotnet.net]
> Sent: Sunday, October 24, 1999 11:50 AM
>
> So what about the therizinosaurs?  For a while, the word was that they
> were highly derived oviraptors, but that family tree seems to have
> become passé.  Now they are . . .what?  What _are_ therizinosaurs?

Paul Sereno's analysis places therizinosaurs as the sister group to
ornithomimosaurs and alvarezsaurids; the analyses of myself, Makovicky &
Sues, the AMNH crew, and the IVPP puts them as the sister group to
oviraptorosaurs.

So, that family tree is FAR from passe'!

                Thomas R. Holtz, Jr.
                Vertebrate Paleontologist
Department of Geology           Director, Earth, Life & Time Program
University of Maryland          College Park Scholars
                College Park, MD  20742
http://www.geol.umd.edu/~tholtz/tholtz.htm
http://www.geol.umd.edu/~jmerck/eltsite
Phone:  301-405-4084    Email:  tholtz@geol.umd.edu
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