Kurochkin at NAPC

I recently heard Evgeny Kurochkin give a talk at NAPC here in Berkeley that seemed somewhere in the middle of BADD and BAND. He claims that there are two lineages of feathered archosaurs. He used the names Sauriurae and Ornithurae, but his analysis differs from Feduccia's in that he thinks the Sauriurae (Archaeopteryx + Enantiornithes) were actually descended from theropods, while the Ornithurae (Confuciusornidae + Neornithes) were something else entirely. The animal he claims they descend from is Protoavis, which he says is a single animal. He presented about 12 synapomorphies for Ornithurae, and he had a list of similar size for the Sauriurae. In addition, he claims that all of the shared characters between the two groups are the result of parallel evolution for flight.

Not being an expert on birds or much else for that matter, I don't really know what to believe yet. Though I would like to hear comments if anyone else has heard his theories before, since I didn't see too many people from this list at NAPC.