Palaeos Vertebrates: Coelurosauria: Classification

Infraclass Archosauromorpha Huene, 1946 (cont.) Order Theropoda Marsh, 1881 (cont.) Suborder Coeluria Marsh, 1881 (= Coelurosauria Huene, 1914) mostly small lightly built forms, but also include two specialised lineages, the tyrannosaurs and ornithomimids, as well as the ancestors of birds, Mid Jur to End Cret Family Coeluridae Marsh, 1881 monotypal, includes only Coelurus fragilis, late Jur of Nth Am Family Compsognathidae Cope, 1871 small lightly built theropods, covered with protofeathers, rather similar to a flightless Archaeopteryx, Late Jur to Mid Cret. Irioonically these minature theropods are cloesley related to the largest of the coelurosaurs, the tyrannosaurids incertae sedis: Dilong, Eotyrannus, Stokesosaurus, etc proto-tyrannosaurs or tyrannosaur ancestors, not assigned to family rank Family Proceratosauridae Rauhut, Milner & Moore-Fay, 2010 primitive tyrannosaurs, including a range of crested forms - Mid Jur to Mid Cret of Laurasia Family Dryptosauridae Marsh, 1890 poorly known late Cret tyrannosaurids Family Tyrannosauridae Osborn, 1906 large to gigantic coelurosaurs known from Laurasia; advanced froms have diminutive forearms but powerfully built skulls and jaws incertae sedis: Alectrosaurus and other genera (not assigned to subfamilies) primitive tyrannosaurs Subfamily Tyrannosaurinae advanced Tyrannosaurs Tribe Albertosaurini Currie, Hurum & Sabath, 2003 relatively lightly built (but still very large) tyrannosaurs, latest Cret of Nth Am Tribe Tyrannosaurini advanced, heavily built Tyrannosaurs, latest Cret of Asia & Nth Am Family Ornithomimidae Marsh, 1890 the ostrich dinosaurs or ostrich mimics, Mid to late Cret of Asia & Nth Am. incertae sedis: Archaeornithomimus, Pelecanimimus, etc primitive ornithomids not assigned to a subfamily Subfamily Garudimiminae Barsbold, 1981 monotypal family (here, subfamily) for the genus Garudimimus, Mid Cret of Mongolia Subfamily Harpymiminae Barsbold & Perle, 1984 monotypal family (here, subfamily) for the genus Harpymimus Mid Cret of Mongolia Subfamily Ornithomiminae advanced ostrich dinosaurs Family Deinocheiridae Osmólska & Roniewics, 1970 monotypal family based on a single enigmatic pair of giant forearms, resembling ornithomid arms Family Ornitholestidae Paul, 1988 either a coelurosaur or a primitive maniraptoran Suborder Protoavia Paul 1988 (= "non-avian" Maniraptora Gauthier, 1986) - advanced, very bird-like theropods, alternatively, may be flightless dino-birds descended from Archaeopteryx-grade ancestors. Infraorder Therizinosauria incertae sedis: a number on unplaced genera, which could be placed in several monotypal or paraphyletic families: Falcarius, Beipiaosaurus, etc Family Alxasauridae Russell & Dong, 1995 Family Therizinosauridae Maleev, 1954 Infraorder "Alvarezsauria" - yes we know it only contains one family Family Alvarezsauridae Bonaparte, 1991 - bird-like, thumb-clawed, small coelurosaurs - Late Cret of EAs, Eur, NAm and SAm Subfamily Alvarezsaurinae Subfamily Patagonykinae Subfamily Mononykinae (= Parvicursorinae) - specialized alvarezsaurids with a pinched foot, Late Cret of EAs and NAm Infraorder Oviraptorosauria - bizarre, beaked, herbivorous or omnivorous coelurosaurs, Early to Late Cret of EAs and NAm incertae sedis: a number on unplaced genera, which could be placed in several monotypal, monophyletic or paraphyletic families or subfamilies: Caenagnathasia, Caenagnathus, Incisivosaurus, Protarchaeopteryx Family Caudipteridae Family Oviraptoridae Barsbold, 1976 Subfamily Oviraptorinae - More powerful arms, shorter stouter legs, Late Cret of EAs Subfamily Elmisaurinae - Shorter arms, longer legged oviraptors, Late Cret of EAs and NAm Subfamily Ingeniinae Order Archaeopterygiformes (Class Aves) = Infraorder Deinonychosauria (Order Theropoda) Family Troodontidae Gilmore, 1924 Family Dromaeosauridae Matthew & Brown, 1922 Subfamily Microraptorinae - small four-winged aboreal glidings forms Subfamily Unenlagiinae - long-snouted west gondwanan dromaeosaurs Subfamily Dromaeosaurinae - large and heavily built dromaeasaurs Subfamily Saurornitholestinae - similar to velociraprtorines Subfamily Velociraptorinae - classic dromaesaurs - Deinonychus, Velociraptor etc Infraorder or Order unspecified Family Scansoriopterygidae

Notes

Theropoda is conventially paced as a suborder of Order Saurischia Seeley, 1887. But since the three dinosaurian groups (Theropoda, Sauropodomorpha, and Ornithischia) all diverged at the same time and remained consistently distinct and diverse lineages, we felt that Theropoda should be promoted to Ordinal status

With Theropoda becoming an order, previous infraorders now become suborders.

Only a few taxa are listed here. The Tyrannosaurs include not only the familiar T. rex and similar species, but also a diverse range of Mid Jurasisc through to Mid Cret forms with more conventional theropod or coelurosaur proportions; because this new research into the evolutionary relationships of Tyrannosaurs uses rank-free cladistic analysis, no linnaean supra-generic taxa have been erected for them in most of the published literature.

Suborder has been chosen as the linnaean rank for Protoaves, in keeping with the rest of the theropod classification. This would represent a more advanced (bird-like) taxon than Coeluria. Alternatively, a fully ordinal rank could be used, either within superorder Dinosauria or in Class Aves. The latter option would apply especially if Greg Paul's Neoflightless theropod hypothesis were to be accepted.

Maniraptora includes not only bird-like dinosaurs birds as well, so strictly speaking it should only be used in a monophyletic context. But as Although phylogenetic nomenclature (confusingly) uses the same names as Linanean/evolutionary nomenclature, but in a different context (only allowing monophyletic taxa, emphasising extant crown group definitions etc) we could strictly speaking go the other way and borrow a monophyletic term for a non-cladistic paraphyletic definition. Greg Paul's almost identical term, coined two years later, has the advantage of being Linnaean from the start. Unfortunately Paul's terms have no official nomenclatural standing, as they are not acconpanied by formal descriptions. That doesn't matter though, because the present page, and for that matter the whole of palaeos, is informal as well (which is half the fun!).

In traditional Linnaean classification, the extant birds (Class Aves) are divided into a whopping thirty or so extant orders. The unusally high ranking reflects the influence of ornithologists in 19th century natural history; as Romer somewhere points out, were this any other group they would probably be considered families (or today, given the current tendency to taxonomic inflation, superfamilies). We have here followed Greg Paul (1988) in grouping Archaeopteryx with the deinonychosaurs; in Paul's evolutionary systematic approach, Deinonychosauria would becomes a junior synonym for a paraphyletic Archaeopterygiformes.

MAK120306

Hybrid classification

This section is another of our now discontinued and impractical attempt to integrate the rank-based Linnaean and the phylogeny-based Cladistic systems of organising the natural world. The following key is used:

Parainfraclass Archosauromorpha Huene, 1946 (cont.) Paraorder Theropoda Marsh, 1881 (cont.) Parasuborder Coeluria Marsh, 1881 (= Coelurosauria Huene, 1914) mostly small lightly built forms, but also include two specialised lineages, the tyrannosaurs and ornithomimids, as well as the ancestors of birds, Mid Jur to End Cret Monofamily Coeluridae Marsh, 1881 monotypal, includes only Coelurus fragilis, late Jur of Nth Am Ambifamily Compsognathidae Cope, 1871 small lightly built theropods, covered with protofeathers, rather similar to a flightless Archaeopteryx, Late Jur to Mid Cret. Irioonically these minature theropods are cloesley related to the largest of the coelurosaurs, the tyrannosaurids incertae sedis: Dilong, Eotyrannus, Stokesosaurus, etc proto-tyrannosaurs and tyrannosaur ancestors Evofamily Proceratosauridae Rauhut, Milner & Moore-Fay, 2010 primitive tyrannosaurs, including a range of crested forms - Mid Jur to Mid Cret of Laurasia Holofamily Dryptosauridae Marsh, 1890 poorly known late Cret tyrannosaurids Holofamily Tyrannosauridae Osborn, 1906 large to gigantic coelurosaurs known from Laurasia; advanced froms have diminutive forearms but powerfully built skulls and jaws incertae sedis: Alectrosaurus and other genera (not assigned to subfamilies) primitive tyrannosaurs Holosubfamily Tyrannosaurinae advanced Tyrannosaurs Holotribe Albertosaurini Currie, Hurum & Sabath, 2003 relatively lightly built (but still very large) tyrannosaurs, latest Cret of Nth Am Holotribe Tyrannosaurini advanced, heavily built Tyrannosaurs, latest Cret of Asia & Nth Am Holofamily Ornithomimidae Marsh, 1890 the ostrich dinosaurs or ostrich mimics, Mid to late Cret of Asia & Nth Am. incertae sedis: Archaeornithomimus, Pelecanimimus, etc primitive ornithomids not assigned to a subfamily Monosubfamily Garudimiminae Barsbold, 1981 monotypal family (here, subfamily) for the genus Garudimimus, Mid Cret of Mongolia Monosubfamily Harpymiminae Barsbold & Perle, 1984 monotypal family (here, subfamily) for the genus Harpymimus Mid Cret of Mongolia Holosubfamily Ornithomiminae advanced ostrich dinosaurs Holofamily Deinocheiridae Osmólska & Roniewics, 1970 monotypal family based on a single enigmatic pair of giant forearms, resembling ornithomid arms Monofamily Ornitholestidae Paul, 1988 either a coelurosaur or a primitive maniraptoran Suborder Protoavia Paul 1988 (= "non-avian" Maniraptora Gauthier, 1986) - advanced, very bird-like theropods, alternatively, may be flightless dino-birds descended from Archaeopteryx-grade ancestors. Holoinfraorder Therizinosauria incertae sedis: a number on unplaced genera, which could be placed in several monotypal or paraphyletic families: Falcarius, Beipiaosaurus, etc Monofamily Alxasauridae Russell & Dong, 1995 Holofamily Therizinosauridae Maleev, 1954 Monoinfraorder "Alvarezsauria" - yes we know it only contains one family Holofamily Alvarezsauridae Bonaparte, 1991 - bird-like, thumb-clawed, small coelurosaurs - Late Cret of EAs, Eur, NAm and SAm Monosubfamily Alvarezsaurinae Parasubfamily Patagonykinae Holosubfamily Mononykinae (= Parvicursorinae) - specialized alvarezsaurids with a pinched foot, Late Cret of EAs and NAm Holoinfraorder Oviraptorosauria - bizarre, beaked, herbivorous or omnivorous coelurosaurs, Early to Late Cret of EAs and NAm incertae sedis: a number on unplaced genera, which could be placed in several monotypal, monophyletic or paraphyletic families or subfamilies: Caenagnathasia, Caenagnathus, Incisivosaurus, Protarchaeopteryx Monofamily Caudipteridae Holofamily Oviraptoridae Ambisubfamily Oviraptorinae - More powerful arms, shorter stouter legs, Late Cret of EAs Ambisubfamily Elmisaurinae - Shorter arms, longer legged oviraptors, Late Cret of EAs and NAm Holosubfamily Ingeniinae Paraorder Archaeopterygiformes (Class Aves) = Infraorder Deinonychosauria (Order Theropoda) Evofamily Troodontidae Gilmore, 1924 Holofamily Dromaeosauridae Matthew & Brown, 1922 Evosubfamily Microraptorinae - small four-winged aboreal glidings forms Holosubfamily Unenlagiinae - long-snouted west gondwanan dromaeosaurs Parasubfamily Dromaeosaurinae - large and heavily built dromaeasaurs Evosubfamily Saurornitholestinae - similar to velociraprtorines Holosubfamily Velociraptorinae - classic dromaesaurs - Deinonychus, Velociraptor etc Infraorder or Order unspecified Holofamily or Evofamily Scansoriopterygidae

Coelurosauria: Classification

Suborder Coeluria (= Coelurosauria)

Traditional classification

Hybrid classification