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

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dromaeosaurids], and a dade comprising ornithomirnids and Mononychus. The<br />

potential for arctometatarsus development would have first arisen in the common<br />

ancestor of Mononychus and tyrannosaurids (Figure 5.6). if his was the initial<br />

condition, the structure was wnvergently expressed in four instances: the clade<br />

comprising Mononychus, omithornirnosaurs, and their common ancestor, and<br />

separately in the dades Umisaunrs, Troodontidae, and Tyrannosauridae.<br />

If the arctometatarsus itselfwas present in the common ancestor of<br />

tyrannosaurids and Mononycbus, and passed on to the descendents of that<br />

ancestor, the phylogeny implicates four losses. Theriùnosaurs, Nomingia,<br />

dromaeosaurids, and Aves wouId have lost the structure. The association of<br />

Mononychus with omithomimids minimires the permutations involved in the<br />

occurrence of an arctometatarsus in that taon (see the preceding discussion).<br />

An alternative hypothesis, suggested by both phylogenies, is that the<br />

arctometatarsus is a synapomorphy of the clade comprising the common<br />

ancestor of Tyrannosauridae and Aves and ail its descendents (Tyrônnoraptora:<br />

Sereno 1999). Losses of the morphology would have occurred within the<br />

Eumaniraptora (dromaeosaurids and birds: Holtz: 2000), and therizinosaur-<br />

oviraptorosaur (Holtz 2000) or therizinosaur-omithomimosaur (Sereno 1999)<br />

clades. This would require only one gain and four losses on one phylogeny<br />

(Sereno 1999), and minimally one gain and three losses on the other (HoItz<br />

2000). The universal Iack of an arctometatarsus in adult birds, the most speciose<br />

and accessible coelurosaurian clade, may be a spurious bias against this

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