Haha, more questions

["Dino Rampage" <dino_rampage@hotmail.com>]

Many, many thanks to those kind souls who have offered me much help on the 
evolutionary relationships * ecological niches on Mesozoic mammals. I still 
have even more questions... you know, I never seem to run out of questions 
:-)

1) What is Dryptosaurus' relationship to other theropods? All seem to agree 
that it is a non- maniraptoran coelurosaur, but is it close to the base of 
Coelurosauria, or more closely related to the Tyrannosaurs? I've seen it 
mentioned somewhere on the list that Dryptosaurus was a basal Tyrannosauroid 
(note the word "TyrannosaurOid")

2) How is Troodon related to the other coelurosaurs? They used to be called 
Arctometatarsalia, then Bullatosaurs, and now their placement is somewhat 
uncertain. Do they occupy a place within the maniraptoriforms, like the 
tyrannosaurs & ornithomimids, or within the maniraptors, or as Oyvind M 
Padron's cladogram states, within the Deionychosauria itself??

3) Alvarezsaurs. Weird avialans, weird troodont relatives, or weird 
ornithomimid relatives?

4) Is Meagraptor believed to be an aberrant giant Gondwanan dromaeosaur?

_________________________________________________________________
Send and receive Hotmail on your mobile device: http://mobile.msn.com