Re: Senter et al. 2004 impressions

[Tim Williams <twilliams_alpha@hotmail.com>]

Mickey Mortimer wrote:

> True.  Senter et al.'s dissertation includes Avimimus and three segnosaurs
> however, and (though with a different character set) segnosaurs are basal
> arctometatarsalians and Avimimus the sister clade to Oviraptoridae.

So the Oviraptorosauria+Therizinosauroidea clade falls apart?  Is 
_Beipiaosaurus_ included in the analysis?

Segnosaurs as arctometatarsalians...?  As remarked upon previously, 
troodontids and therizinosauroids share quite a similar dentition.  If 
alvarezsaurids are included in this clade, along with segnosaurs and 
bullatosaurs, then what we end up with is a major clade of 
non-hypercarnivorous maniraptoriforms (assuming troodontids were 
omnivorous).

> A small nit-pick- Senter et al.'s Dromaeosauridae
> is Padian et al.'s (1999), so would exclude Bambiraptor if the topology was
> (Micro(Bambi(Veloci,Drom))).  Good observation though.  Parsimony is a
> fickle mistress... or something to that effect.

I think it's worth noting _Bambiraptor_ is not coming out as sister taxon to 
_Saurornitholestes_.  For a while there was a suggestion that the two might 
be synonymous.  I think this was wishful thinking on the part of those 
(myself included) who despised the name _Bambiraptor_ and wanted to see it 
buried as a junior synonym of _Saurornitholestes_.  :-)   But at least it 
seems we can kiss goodbye to _Cryptovolans_.

A final note: I wonder what impact _Omnivoropteryx_ will have on 
maniraptoran phylogeny, especially vis-a-vis the topology of basal 
oviraptorosaurs?



Tim

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