Re: Dinosauricon Phylogeny: in progress

["Mickey Mortimer" <Mickey_Mortimer111@msn.com>]

David Marjanovic wrote-

> > But Ornithuromorpha is defined as including Vorona.
>
> No, according to the chapter by Chiappe in Mesozoic Birds: "a clade
> defined here as the [sic] common ancestor of *Patagopteryx* and
> Ornithurae, and all its descendants". Of course, in that analysis *Vorona*
> forms a trichotomy with *P.* and Ornithurae.

But before that, in 2001 (Ostrom Symposium volume) he defined it as "the
common ancestor of Patagopteryx, Vorona and Ornithurae, and all descendents
from this ancestor."

> > BTW, Vorona's fifth metatarsal has to be a reversal if you take its
> > absence in Longipteryx, Jibeinia and enantiornithines into account.
>
> Hmm... are they absent, or not preserved, or preserved on the unprepared
> ventral side??? For such a character, I favor multiple independent losses
> over a reversal any time.

Good questions.  Hou (1997) merely says "metatarsal V has been lost" for
Jibeinia.  It's simply not illustrated or mentioned by Zhang et al. (2001)
for Longipteryx.  Several taxa referred to the Enantiornithes (eg. Sinornis,
Iberomesornis) have otherwise well preserved feet, so probably did lack the
element.

> > Finally got a hard copy of Kurochkin (1999), so I can answer questions
> > about this if needed.
>
> Great! :-9 What does the scapula-coracoid articulation of *O.* look like?

"The convex coracoidal cotyla in the scapula and concave scapular cotyla in
the coracoid unite Ambiortus and Otogornis with the Ornithurae."

Mickey Mortimer