Re: Question on Anchiornis huxleyi

["David Marjanovic" <david.marjanovic@gmx.at>]

> But to answer your questions directly, (1) Turner et al. (2012) found that
> Anchiornis (along with Xiaotingia) is a basal troodontid. (2) Further from
> Aves than Archaeopteryx. (3) This is using the Theropod Working Group
> matrix, which has had a comparatively stable topology in recent years, but
> does not yet incorporate Eosinopteryx or Aurornis. It surely will soon.

In contrast, the description of *Aurornis* (Godefroit et al. 2013) presents a 
phylogenetic analysis that contains all of these and finds them on the bird 
side (and also finds Troodontidae closer to the birds than to the 
deinonychosaurs). It is based on a very large matrix with 992 
parsimony-informative characters, which is a huge point in its favor. However, 
it finds odd things like *Balaur* being a bird rather than a dromaeosaurine -- 
only time, if anything, will tell.

Godefroit et al. find the bird side to have the topology (*Aurornis* 
(*Anchiornis* (*Archaeopteryx* (*Xiaotingia* ((*Rahonavis*, *Shenzhouraptor*) 
(*Balaur* (*Sapeornis* (*Confuciusornis* (Enantiornithes, Euornithes))))))))). 
*Eosinopteryx* comes out as the sister-group to Eumaniraptora.