Re: the chinese Mesozoic Aves tree

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

> Eocathayornis would appear to have [...]

More than I thought. :-)

> and no phalanx III-1.

I asked Feduccia if that's real... he doesn't know anymore, and seems not to
care.

> >         I'm pretty sure that *Cuspirostrisornis* is an avisaurid or
> > closely related, and that *Sinornis* is a close relative of that group.
>
> Because of which characters?

I've begun to translate my would-be paper about my analysis... then I didn't
continue for months... I'll look this up tomorrow.

> |--Yandangornis
> `--+--+--Shenzhouraptor
>    |  `--Jixiangornis
>    `--+--+--Confuciusornis
>       |  `--Changchengornis
>       `--+--+--Sapeornis
>          |  `--Omnivoropteryx

Familiar, but... ~:-| that's what my analysis looked like (with fewer taxa
of course) before I had "enough" characters! :-)

> Potential synapomorphies I can imagine for my prior
> arrangement are- elongate dorsal premaxillary process; C-shaped lacrimal;
> toothless dentary; proximal humeral foramen.

Aha. (All not in my analysis, of course.)

> Could these be due to poor illustrations, crushing and/or
> breakage?  Absolutely.  Which is why I've been pondering how misleading
> including Hou's taxa of crap could be for my analysis...

Perhaps you should code everything you don't trust "?".

> > >                                  |--+--Liaoningornis longidigitus
> > >                                  |  `--Songlingornis linghensis
> >
> > Similar to my analysis (62 characters). :-)
>
> Apparently due to their relatively robust radii.

Which weren't in my analysis. That proves it then! ;-)

> Yanornis and Ichthyornis both have more elongate wings.  It was a
character
> state meant to test if the very elongate wings of tailed
post-Archaeopteryx
> birds and omnivoropterygids would combine any of them together.
Longipteryx
> also exhibits the condition.

Oh.
IMHO this character could be a bit too volatile to include in an analysis...
but of course that's subjective. And once you have your expected 400, that
one won't do damage...