paraphyletic Dromaeosauridae (was: first raptor)

["Ken Kinman" <kinman@hotmail.com>]

    Actually I have long been contemplating whether a paraphyletic Family 
Dromaeosauridae giving rise to Aves might be the best way to go.  I don't 
normally use intermediate taxa like subfamilies, but the Kinman System does 
not forbid it, so will give it a try in this case.
    Note that in some topologies, the  troodonts would be a subfamily 
Troodontinae within Family Dromaeosauridae, but I presently prefer them as a 
sister family (or possibly as a basal subfamily within Dromaeosauridae?).  I 
have not decided where Adasaurus should go (near or in Velociraptorines??).  
Perhaps troodonts are intermediate between utahraptorines and 
dromaeosaurines, but at this point, whose knows:

 1   Troodontidae
 2   Dromaeosauridae
         1  "utahraptorines"
         2  Dromaeosaurinae
         3  Velociraptorinae
         4  Sinornithosaurus
         5  Microraptor
         ?  Bambiraptor
         6  Unenlagia
         7  Rahonavis
         8  {{AVES}}
_a_ {{AVES}}

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Tim Williams wrote:
> Are _Utahraptor_ and _Achillobator_ more primitive than _Microraptor_ and
> _Sinornithosaurus_?  I would guess that "primitive" in the context of
> eumaniraptorans is extremely relative, since in many analyses the basal
> dromaeosaurids are closest to the origin of birds.
> Wouldn't it be wonderful if _Microraptor_ + _Sinornithosaurus_ + Aves form 
> a clade; _Utahraptor_ and _Achillobator_ form a second eumaniraptoran 
> clade; and the other eumaniraptorans (_Dromaeosaurus_, _Deinonychus_, 
> _Velociraptor_) form a third.  Aves a subset of the Dromaeosauridae?  I can 
> see a few people getting into a flap over that.

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