RE: New papers on the dinosaur formerly known as Syntarsus (no more "Megapnosaurus")

[Brad McFeeters <archosauromorph2@hotmail.com>]

> From: "Jaime A. Headden" <qilongia@yahoo.com>
> Reply-To: qilongia@yahoo.com
> To: dinosaur@usc.edu
> CC: archosauromorph2@hotmail.com
> Subject: RE: New papers on the dinosaur formerly known as Syntarsus (no 
> more "Megapnosaurus")
> Date: Tue, 28 Jun 2005 19:52:57 -0700 (PDT)
>
>   Which reminds me. The initial description of *Syntarsus kayentakatae* 
> used
> the nature of the nasolachrymoprefrontal fontanelle (or nasal fenestra) as 
> the
> diagnostic feature linking *kayentakatae* to *rhodesiensis*, thus 
> validating
> the species's assignment into *Syntarsus*. If this feature is an artefact 
> in
> *rhodesiensis*, then what is the condition in *kayentakatae*? It is likely,
> with regards to the shorter snout and crests, that *kayentakatae* 
> represents a
> taxon other than *Coelophysis* or *Syntarsus* and thankfully, the name
> *Megapnosaurus* cannot be applied to it without *rhodesiensis*.
>
>   Cheers,
>
> Jaime A. Headden

Last night I did a bit more reading on ?*C. kayentakatae*, and it does seem 
to have several other *Dilophosaurus*-like characteristics independent of 
the crests.  So despite every published cladogram linking it with *C. 
rhodesiensis* and far from *Dilophosaurus*, I think it's possible that 
someone could make a good case for it not being *Coelophysis*.