Re: Eoconfuciusornis, Paraprotopteryx, Pengornis, Aberratiodontus and other basal birds

[evelyn sobielski <koreke77@yahoo.de>]

--- David Marjanovic <david.marjanovic@gmx.at>
schrieb:

> > (Apparently it is possible to
> > recognize a broken humerus as velociraptorine with
> > enough certainty to leave no place for a
> > question-mark. Intriguing indeed.
> 
> Not at all. You see, a cladogram is not an opinion,
> it's a result. 
> Cladistics programs don't output question marks. If
> you want probabilities 
> for clades, analyze the support (bootstrap,
> jackknife, Bremer... or Bayesian 
> analysis in the first place). 

What I meant was that (providing Mike didn't simply
overlook it) the support for _Hulsanpes_'s position
was high enough to consider this placement rather
definite. Or in this case (since I don't know if a
formal check has been done) that the position is
stable in a quick-and-dirty Bremer-like check. Not
like in _Piksi_ which I presume has the annoying
tendency to attach to any weak-flying ornithothoracine
(as was elegantly demonstrated in the original
description, where it attached itself to a "clade" of
galliforms, tinamous and terrestrial pigeons).

The "question-mark" was misleading... shouold have
said "asterisk".


Eike


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