_Procompsognathus_ [was: Re: Gliders to Fliers? (Was Re: Ruben Strikes Back)]

["Jonathan R. Wagner" <znc14@TTACS.TTU.EDU>]

Stanley Friesen wrote:
>_Procompsognathus_ is probably the closest we have to the ancestral
>dinosaur ecologically - even if it is technically more derived than
>_Herrerasaurus_.
        I presume that, by "more derived," you mean "sharing a more recent
common ancestor with modern birds than with animals such as _Eoraptor_,
_Herrerasaurus_, ornithiscians, and sauropodomorphs." Or do you mean that
_Procompsognathus_ possesses more apomorphies than _Herrerasaurus_, relative
to the condition seen in their most recent common ancestor?
        (As an aside, this is one of the advantages of cladisitics; it
provides a framework within which statements such as Stan's can be addressed
in a rigorous manner.)
        Whichever way you meant it, there is, to my knowledge, no consensus
on either of these points. Indeed, I am not aware of any consensus on the
ecology of this animal. Last I had heard, it was still up in the air as to
whether it was even an Avemetatarsalian. I know Chatterjee has recently
finished a study of this beast, but it has yet to be published.

        Wagner
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     Jonathan R. Wagner, Dept. of Geosciences, TTU, Lubbock, TX 79409-1053
  "Why do I sense we've picked up another pathetic lifeform?" - Obi-Wan Kenobi