phylogenetic position of Herrerasauridae

["Thomas R. Holtz, Jr." <tholtz@geol.umd.edu>]

Greetings,

In answer to some questions about the position of herrerasaurids: the most
recent extensive work on the subject is by Yates and colleagues (at, for
example, SVP 2001).  They found that herrerasaurids are within Dinosauria,
are saurischians, and are possibly outside Eusaurischia (sauropodomorphs +
theropods), although they could be basal theropods.  An interesting result
of that work was the tendancy for _Eoraptor_ to fall closer to classic
theropods than did herrerasaurids.

                Thomas R. Holtz, Jr.
                Vertebrate Paleontologist
Department of Geology           Director, Earth, Life & Time Program
University of Maryland          College Park Scholars
                College Park, MD  20742
http://www.geol.umd.edu/~tholtz/tholtz.htm
http://www.geol.umd.edu/~jmerck/eltsite
Phone:  301-405-4084    Email:  tholtz@geol.umd.edu
Fax (Geol):  301-314-9661       Fax (CPS-ELT): 301-405-0796