|
-----Original
Message----- My
probably final comments before I leave for the shores of southern France... I
wrote: Shuvosaurus
is a coelophysid based on two characters shared with Syntarsus- forked
posterior end of the premaxilla, considerably elongated basisphenoid. I can't
judge that, but these characters sound pretty weak, IMHO. ...because
the elongated basisphenoid is probably -- I don't know -- present in every
elongated braincase, which may IMHO easily evolve more often than once; the
forked posterior end of the premaxilla is surely not something that won't
evolve twice either, I think (again, I don't know). Also, that it shares these
characters with Syntarsus but -- apparently -- not with the
very similar Coelophysis is, if true, striking. I'm
already waiting that Dryptosaurus becomes a ceratosaur... ~:-| This
"statement" was based on the usually assumed similarities
between Deltadromeus and Dryptosaurus. By any
chance, have you seen the material? HP Rob
Gay answered to this: >
Wait and see, coelophysoids are actually the closest ancestor to Raath
1977 or so, IIRC, had proposed this, based AFAIK largely on things like fusion
in the hip region and other convergences. Are we
judging convergences, similarities, etc. based on published papers or actually
seeing the material? I bring this up from an interesting discussion I had this
weekend up at DPP. Tracy L. Ford P. O. Box 1171 Poway Ca 92074 |