RE: Gaia theropod follow-up: a "new" phylogeny

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

> From: owner-dinosaur@usc.edu [mailto:owner-dinosaur@usc.edu]On Behalf Of
> Mickey_Mortimer
>
> Arghh! I can no longer say my analysis uses more characters than any
> published study ;-).  I have a measly 296 entered and 50 or so still being
> studied.  Then again, I only deal with coelurosaurs.

For my SVP paper, the number of characters is approaching the Number of the
Beast.  URGH!!

> I have a couple
> questions.  Does the Ceratosauria still come out as monophyletic in your
> newest studies or is it paraphyletic, as several others have
> found?

Monophyletic, with a Bremer support of 7 (in that study).  However, in the
SVP abstract by Britt et al. on new specimens of _Ceratosaurus_, we've
recoded and added additional characters for that taxon, and although both
neoceratosaurs and coelophysoids remain closer to each other than to
tetanurines, in trees on two steps long neoceratosaurs wind up being closer
to tetanurines.

> How did
> you ever get basal coelurosaurs to get organized?  They just love huge
> polytomies in my analyses.  I can't wait to read it!

I got out the whip and the chair and...  Well, I was just lucky in that
particular study.  When adding a few more taxa, let's just say that things
get a bit more bush-like.

                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
Fax (Geol):  301-314-9661       Fax (CPS-ELT): 301-405-0796