My Phylogeny: Now Accelerating Comes Science

["David Marjanovic" <david.marjanovic@gmx.at>]

The humble beginnings of a character matrix...

Because the results won't be published in a scientific journal, I'll set a
historical precedence case ;-) and develop my character matrix in public,
asking everyone to destroy it before it is even finished. Especially the
question marks which usually refer to my knowledge rather than what is
really known.

I have taken some very big OTUs in order to reduce the size of the matrix
(I'd have to include their synapomorphies otherwise), the amount of
convergence and my efforts. The disadvantage is that I have to find out
their plesiomorphic states... The codings for Alvarezsauridae, for example,
are guessed from Mononykinae, *Patagonykus* and *Alvarezsaurus*. I haven't
added oviraptorosaurian and "enigmosaur" synapomorphies because I haven't
looked for any yet in the literature.

The distribution of pneumatic characters seems to be rather patchy and
little known. So I have just one, and that is polymorphic.

Summarizing from the discussions (largely) onlist in June and now, as well
as the description of "*Rahona*":

1. Pubic apron more than one-third the length of the pubis (0), shorter or
absent (1)
2. Obturator process on ischium present (0), absent (1)
3. Ischial symphysis present (0), absent (1)
4. Extra exit for V1 nerve absent (0), present (1)
5. Arctometatarsus: not (0), sub (1), normal or hyper (2) (ordered)
6. Tail : femur ratio over (0), under (1) 3.5
7. over 40 (0), 25 -- 39 (1), 24 or less (2) caudal vertebrae
8. Pygostyle absent (0), present (1)
9. Quadrate single-(0), double-headed (1)
10. Antitrochanter absent (0), present (1)
11. Trochanteric crest divided (0), undivided (1)
12. Ratio of height of neural canal in dorsal vertebrae to height of cranial
articular face less (0), more (1) than 0.40
13. Leg length : tail length ratio under 0.45 (0), in between (1), above 0.8
(2) (ordered)
14. Tail stiffened distally (0), distally and in the middle, but mobile at
the base (1), mobile throughout its length (save a pygostyle) (2) (unordered
-- the transformation from 0 to 2 is one step)
15. 5 or less (0), 6 or more (1) sacral vertebrae (polymorphic!)
16. Caudal pneumatization absent (0), occurring (1) (polymorphic by
definition!)

Compsognathidae 000?0 000?0 00000 0
*Bagaraatan* 1???? ????0 0?00? 0
Tyrannosauroidea 00012 01000 00100 ?
Ornithomimosauria 00012 01000 00100/1 0
Troodontidae 00012 01000 00110/1 0
Segnosauria 00010 11??0 00220/1 ?
Oviraptoridae 00010 11010 00221 1
Caenagnathidae 00012 11??0 00221 1
*Caudipteryx* 000?1 12?10 00220 ?
*Nomingia* 000?? 121?0 0022? ?
Dromaeosauridae 00000 01000 0010/1 0
*Bambiraptor* 000?1 01000 00?1? 0
*Sinornithosaurus* 000?1 01000 00110 0
*Archaeopteryx* 00001 02000 00210 0
*Rahonavis* 101?0 0?0?0 11111 0
*Avimimus* 100?2 ????1 1???? ?
Alvarezsauridae 111?1 11?11 11221 1
Yandangornis ????1 12??? 1?2?? ?
Pygostylia 11111 12111 11221 1

Comments:
5: State 3, hyper, is in this matrix an uninformative autapomorphy of
*Avimimus*, so I gave it state 2. Strange, but *Rahonavis* really has a
totally plesiomorphic metatarsus, there's no doubt from the photos in its
description. Mt III is even less pinched than in *Deinonychus*!!!
13: Juvenile *Gallimimus* has 0.75, juvenile *Bambiraptor* even 0.9. The new
tail of *Shuvuuia*, unknown to me, might just change the entry for
Alvarezsauridae.
14: The tail of *Bagaraatan* is stiffened proximally -- an uninformative
autapomorphy. What do we actually know now about troodontid tails?
15: How many do confuciusornithids have? 8, like Ornithothoraces?

I should include something like *Coelurus* and *Ornitholestes*. I just don't
know how to give them different codings from Compsognathidae.