Revising Hou et al, 96 (long)

["Nicholas Gardner" <n_gardner637@hotmail.com>]

Hey folks!

I'm sure most of you have read Hou, Martin, Zhou, and Feduccia, 1996 ("Early 
Adaptive Radiation of Birds: Evidence from Fossils from Northeastern 
China").  I recently picked up a copy from the JSTOR archive.

Anyway, figure 3.D is their fun cladogram.

--Aves
 |--Sauriurae
 |  |--Archaeopteryx
 |  `--+--Confuciusornis
 |     `--Enantiornithes
 `--Ornithurae
    |--Liaoningornis
    `--+--Chaoyangia
       `--+--Hesperornis
          `--+--Ichthyornis
             `--Modern birds

It looks from the caption that they ran 31 characters to get this phylogeny. 
 Some of them seem shockingly like plesiomorphies :-).  At least one would 
be hard to tell what taxa had it or not.  And some are plain-out worthless.  
One of the humorous things was that the Confuciusornis+Enantiornithes clade 
was supported solely by "a shortened tail with the development of a 
pygostyle, and distinct pleurocoels".  Sounds like three characters...and at 
least of two of which were present in ornithurines.  The enantiornithine 
synapomorphies sound oddly like possible ornithothoracine ones...

So anyway, I decided to correct, update, and run their characters on PHYLIP. 
 And also incorporate some extra recent taxa in.  The basic point is, could 
someone affirm that the codings are correct?

1.  postorbital/jugal contact: present (0) absent (1)
2.  hypopubic boot: absent (0) present (1) projects only caudally (2)
3.  pelvis: propubic (0) mesopubic (1) opisthopubic (2)
4.  hallux: not (0) retroverted (1)
5.  interclavicular angle of furcula: > 70 (0) < 70 to > 50 (1) > 50 (2)
6.  sternal carina: not (0) extending to anterior margin (1)
7.  sternal coracoidal sulci: absent (0) present (1)
8.  gastralia: present (0) absent (1)
9.  uncinate processes: absent (0) present, ossified (1)
10. metacarpals I, II: unfused (0) distally fused (1)
11. tarsals and metatarsals: unfused (0) distal tarsals co-ossified to 
proximal metatarsals (1) fusion extends to distal metatarsals, distal 
vascular foramen closed (2)
12. pubic symphysis: present (0) absent (1)
13. coracoid: not (0) laterally convex (1)
14. supratendinal bridge of tibiotarsus: absent (0) present (1)
15. furcular posterodorsal lateral groove: absent (0) present (1)
16. proximodorsal ischial process: absent (0) present (1)
17. coracoid: not (0) laterally concave (1)
18. tail/femur ratio: > 2.0 (0) < 2.0 (1)
19. pygostyle: absent (0) present (1)
20. coracoid: not (0) dorsally depressed (1)
21. trochanteric crest: absent (0) present (1)
22. hypocleidium: absent (0) present and elongate (1)
23. metatarsal III: < mttI, mttII (0)> mttI, mttII
24. caudal pleurocoels: absent (0) present (1)
25. procoracoid process: absent (0) present (1)

01200 00010 00000 00000 00000 Deinonychus
01110 00000 10000 10000 00000 Archaeopteryx
?1110 0000? 10000 10??0 10?00 Rahonavis
01210 00000 10000 10210 10001 Confuciusornis
11211 00000 10001 10210 0?101 Protopteryx
01?10 00000 10000 101?0 11000 Yandangornis
?1210 00000 10000 10210 10000 Sapeornis
?1211 00000 10000 10210 00000 Jibeinia
01212 10000 10000 10210 00000 "Archaeoraptor"
01211 00010 10000 10210 01100 Longipteryx
11212 00101 10001 11211 11110 Iberomesornis
11212 00101 10001 11211 11110 Gobipteryx
11212 00100 10001 11211 11110 Cathayornis
11212 00101 10001 11211 11110 Boluochia
11212 11111 21100 00210 00001 Patagopteryx
11212 11111 20100 00210 00001 Yanornis
11212 11011 20100 00210 00001 Yixianornis
?1212 11111 21100 00210 00001 Apsaravis
11212 11111 21100 00210 00001 Liaoningornis
?1212 1111? ?1100 00??0 00??1 Chaoyangia
11212 1111? 21100 00210 00001 Hesperornis
11212 11111 21100 00210 00001 Ichthyornis
11212 11111 21110 00210 00001 Neornithes

Running the current matrix generates 7 trees.  The consensus tree is as 
follows-

--+--Sapeornis
 |--Yandangornis
 |--Confuciusornis
 |--Rahonavis
 |--Deinonychus
 |--Archaeopteryx
 `--+--Jibeinia
    |--+--"Archaeoraptor"
    |  `--+--Yixianornis
    |     `--+--Yanornis
    |        `--+--Ichthornis
    |           |--Hesperornis
    |           |--Chaoyangia
    |           |--Liaoningornis
    |           |--Neornithes
    |           |--Patagopteryx
    |           `--Apsaravis
    `--+--Longipteryx
       `--+--Protopteryx
          `--+--Cathayornis
             `--+--Iberomesornis
                |--Boluochia
                `--Gobipteryx

Cutting the matrix down to the original taxa (with the inclusion of 
Deinonychus as the outgroup) generates 1 tree-

--+--Deinonychus
 |--Archaeopteryx
 `--+--Confuciusornis
    `--+--Enantiornithes
       `--+--Chaoyangia
          |--Liaoningornis
          |--Neornithes
          |--Hesperornis
          `--Ichthyornis

It does seem strange that when you correct the characters the phylogeny no 
longer supports the Sauriurae-Ornithurae dichotomy. :-)  However, I am not 
sure I have coded everything correctly.

Nick Gardner
n_gardner637@hotmail.com

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