Re: Haplocheirus and Gregory S. Paul

[Mark Pauline <markpauline@rocketmail.com>]

However, the notion of "neoflightless" deinonychosaurs is not the most 
parsimonious explanation for the character distribution seen across Maniraptora.


Wouldn't you agree that, since a 4-winged configuration is now seen in the 
basalmost and/or oldest members of the dromaeosaurs (Microraptor) and 
troodontids (Anchiornis), and since their sister group is the Avialae, that it 
is far more likely that they all three inherited aerodynamic behaviors from the 
ancestral paravian than that they each acquired them independently? I know that 
we must hold out the possibility that Microraptor and Anchiornis didn't glide, 
but the body masses are so small, the arms are so long, the sterna are so big 
and ossified, and the feathers are so long and form such large wings  that it 
really seems more likely than not that they glided.

If you do agree, then aren't the larger, more derived deinonychosaurs 
secondarily glideless?

If so, aren't "neoglideless" deinonychosaurs the most parsimonious explanation?