RE: Asilisaurus kongwe

["Thomas R. Holtz, Jr." <tholtz@umd.edu>]

> From: owner-DINOSAUR@usc.edu [mailto:owner-DINOSAUR@usc.edu] 
> On Behalf Of Augusto Haro
>
> If the Silesauridae is the sister group of the Dinosauria, 
> then its presence in the Anisian indicates an older age for 
> the Dinosauria (I mean, as old as the Silesauridae).

Not as such, given that Dinosauria proper is a node-based group. It does
mean that there are members of the (unnamed) clade of Dinosauria and all
taxa closer to it than to Silesaurus were present, though.

> Also, 
> for pterosaurs, and the stem-taxa leading to Scleromochlus, 
> Lagerpeton and Marasuchus but not dinosaurs.
> 
> Regarding the "bird-line", I think this corresponds to the 
> Avemetatarsalia (erected by Benton, 1999, in the 
> Scleromochlus paper in Philosophical Transactions). 
> Avemetatarsalia are all those living beings more closely 
> related to birds than to crocodiles.

Yes, indeed.

Thomas R. Holtz, Jr.
Email: tholtz@umd.edu   Phone: 301-405-4084
Office: Centreville 1216                        
Senior Lecturer, Vertebrate Paleontology
Dept. of Geology, University of Maryland
http://www.geol.umd.edu/~tholtz/
Fax: 301-314-9661               

Faculty Director, Earth, Life & Time Program, College Park Scholars
http://www.geol.umd.edu/~jmerck/eltsite/
Faculty Director, Science & Global Change Program, College Park Scholars
http://www.geol.umd.edu/sgc
Fax: 301-314-9843

Mailing Address:        Thomas R. Holtz, Jr.
                        Department of Geology
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                        University of Maryland
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