Re: Introducing: Sinovenator changii

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

> Xu, X., M.A. Norell, X.-L. Wang, P.J. Makovicky & X.-C Wu.  2002. A basal
> troodontid from teh Early Cretaceous of China.  Nature 415:780-784.

must... have... <shiver> <sweat>

> Okay, back in 1994 I published a paper which placed troodontids as the
> sister taxon to ornithomimosaurs, in the new clade Bullatosauria. [...]
> A similar conclusion was reached by Perez-Moreno et al.
> at just about the same time.

So much for evolutionary scenarios and other just-so stories... actually
it's a pity :.-)

> Meeman Chang

respectively Zhang Miman

> Sadly, the horizon it is from
> does not preseve the integument of the critter, one way or the other.

Hey! That's supposed to be strange there! :-)

> The parasphenoid capsule is NOT inflated.
[...]
> Metatarsal III is somewhat constricted, but non-arctometatarsalian.

<mp3> Chopin's Funeral March </mp3>

Means we can't guess any longer what a really basal ornithomimosaur may have
looked like. Again, so much for evolutionary scenarios.

> Dorsals have fan-shaped neural spines (shades of _Sinosauropteryx_!)

Interesting.

> Pelvis is *OPISTHOPUBIC* (not vertically oriented, but well past 90
degrees)

You think (in your next post) that's a possible synapomorphy of Metornithes?
Despite *Patagonykus* with its vertical pubes?

>            Paraves
>              Avialae
>              Deinonychosauria

What were the OTUs in Avialae? Only *Archaeopteryx*, as I fear?