Re: Sinornithosaurus millenii Xu, Wang & Wu, 1999 (featherydromaeosaurid)

["Ralph W. Miller III" <gbabcock@best.com>]

Betty Cunningham wrote:

> Is it stated in the article if the authors feel this is an adult or not?

No, it is not.

Moving right along:
Another point in the article concerned the phylogenetic relationships of
Dromaeosauridae within the derived theropods.  Unlike earlier cladistic analyses
which diagnosed particular genera in isolation from other avian-like theropods,
this analysis included 14 relevant taxa: _Compsognathus_, _Archaeopteryx_,
_Rahona_, _Unenlagia_, Veloceraptorinae, _Dromaeosaurus_, _Sinornithosaurus_,
Troodontidae, _Protarchaeopteryx_, _Caudipteryx_, Ornithomimidae, 
Tyrannosauridae,
and _Allosaurus_.  A strict consensus tree was generated from the four most
parsimonious trees, incorporating a data matrix  of 106 characters.
_Sinornithosaurus_ was diagnosed as a basal dromaeosaurid, and Dromaeosauridae 
and
Avialae were judged to be more closely related to one another than either is to
Troodontidae.  Furthermore, the study indicated that _Protarchaeopteryx_ and
_Caudipteryx_ are more remote from birds than is Troodontidae.  Xu, Wang, and Wu
conclude:

"The currently established phylogenetic relationships among derived theropods 
seem
to support the presence of true feathers in Dromaeosauridae, but the validity of
this interpretation cannot be confirmed until more direct evidence is 
available."

-- Ralph W. Miller III       gbabcock@best.com