29.03.2013 Views

THE UNIVERSITY OF CALGARY Eric Snively A ... - Ohio University

THE UNIVERSITY OF CALGARY Eric Snively A ... - Ohio University

THE UNIVERSITY OF CALGARY Eric Snively A ... - Ohio University

SHOW MORE
SHOW LESS

Create successful ePaper yourself

Turn your PDF publications into a flip-book with our unique Google optimized e-Paper software.

was the default developmental pattern for coelurosaurs, or how men it became<br />

expressed or lost in various taxa.<br />

How offen did the arctometatarsus evolve?<br />

The presented phylogenies conflict in regard ta how often the arctometatarsus<br />

emerged, and in the distribution and inclusiveness of arctometatarsalian clades.<br />

The simplest hypothesis of character evolution usually attrads provisional<br />

acceptance, because it entails the fewest evolutionary steps (acquisitions and<br />

reversais). However, the most parsimonious scenario is not necessarily correct.<br />

The broad distribution of the arctometatarsus in competing phylogenies<br />

suggests that the simplest and other scenarios be tested with independent<br />

character evidence. The lsvels of parsimony of the Sereno (1 999) and Holtz<br />

(2000) phylogenies cannot be directiy compared. The most econornical resulting<br />

cladograms for each analysis are internally consistent with their respective data<br />

sets, and are the most parsimonious solutions given the taxa and characters<br />

included in that study. Nevertheless, if one analysis resuits in fewer steps for the<br />

emergence of a given character, its results may be interpreted provisionally as<br />

the sirnpler evolutionary explanation for that character.<br />

The arctometatarsus is the relevant subject of character evolution here, and<br />

several patterns of loss and emergence were deduced from its occurrence on<br />

both phylogenies. These patterns divulge which phylogeny presents the simplest<br />

hypothesis of arctometatarsus evolution. Because the simplest explanation does<br />

not definitively refi ect ttie true evolutionary pattern, at minimum the first two most

Hooray! Your file is uploaded and ready to be published.

Saved successfully!

Ooh no, something went wrong!