The Proceedings of the Eighth International Conference on Creationism (2018)

Doran, N., M.A. McLain, N. Young, and A. Sanderson. 2018. The Dinosauria: Baraminological and multivariate patterns. 2018. In Proceedings of the Eighth International Conference on Creationism , ed. J.H. Whitmore, pp. 404-457. Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania: Creation Science Fellowship. THE DINOSAURIA: BARAMINOLOGICALAND MULTIVARIATE PATTERNS Neal A. Doran , Bryan College, Department of Biology 7795, 721 Bryan Drive, Dayton, TN 37321 USA, neal.doran@bryan.edu Matthew A. McLain , The Master’s University, Department of Biological and Physical Sciences, 21726 Placerita Canyon Road, Santa Clarita, CA 91321 USA N. Young , Bryan College, Department of Biology 7795, 721 Bryan Drive, Dayton, TN 37321 USA A. Sanderson , Bryan College, Department of Biology 7795, 721 Bryan Drive, Dayton, TN 37321 USA ABSTRACT The Dinosauria pose both interesting and challenging questions for creationist systematists. One question is whether new dinosaur discoveries are closing morphospatial gaps between dinosaurian groups, revealing continuous morphological fossil series, such as between coelurosaurians and avialans. Questions such as these underscore the importance of systematics for resolving correct group memberships, including tools for visualizing morphospatial relationships. Baraminic distance correlation (BDC), three-dimensional multidimensional scaling (MDS), and a new method to baraminic studies – principal component analysis (PCA) – were applied to 18 character matrices from 2004. The data included saurischian and ornithischian dinosaur groups including (1) “basal” Saurischia, (2) Ceratosauria (including Coelophysidae), (3) “basal” Tetanurae, (4) Tyrannosauroidea, (5) “Prosauropoda”, (6) Sauropoda, (7) Maniraptoriformes, (8) Therizinosauroidea, and (9) Oviraptorosauria. The ornithischians included (10) “basal” Thyreophora, (11) Stegosauria, (12) Ankylosauria, (13) “basal” Ornithopoda, (14) “basal” Iguanodontia, (15) Hadrosauridae, (16) Pachycephalosauria, (17) “basal” Ceratopsia, and (18) Ceratopsidae. BDC and MDS revealed several potential holobaramins and apobaramins, and PCA identified some divisions not recognized by the traditional methods, but since the datasets are 14 years old, many important taxa are missing. As a result, we performed PCA on 19 newer datasets (from 2009 to 2018) and compared the results, which revealed a substantially clearer picture since only 2004. Dinosaur group ordinations commonly occur within morphospatial clusters or linear series. Holobaramins were revealedmainly as closely-spacedmorphospatial series of taxa. Some series were additionally stratomorphic. Assuming holobaramins are discontinuity-bounded morphospatial series of taxa, we estimate 27 potential holobaramins within the newer data. PCA revealed that bird-dinosaur morphospatial relationships vary by dataset. Paravians likely contain two branching morphoseries, connected at the base by dromaeosaurs and avialans. The two morphoseries are functional/ecological, rather than evolutionary. Multivariate analysis offers the potential to improve our understanding of baramins and discontinuity, and provide a new perspective on questions in creation systematics such as bird-dinosaur relationships. KEY WORDS Dinosauria, baraminology, multidimensional scaling, baraminic distance correlation, principal component analysis, discontinuity Copyright 2018 Creation Science Fellowship, Inc., Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, USA www.creationicc.org 404 INTRODUCTION Two important claims concerning dinosaurs and baraminology are that (1) the morphological space between dinosaurs is being progressively filled over time, removing discontinuities between groups, and (2) there is already “morphological continuity” within the Dinosauria (Senter 2010, 2011). These claims show the need for a creationist approach to biological character morphospace. Plant and animal baramins have been examined across an impressive taxonomic range and provide evidence of discontinuity. Animal examples include members as diverse as mammals, insects, and flatworms. Plants groups include the magnolias, monocots, conifers and bryophytes (Wood 2008a, 2016 a ). Included in these surveys are a growing number of examples from the fossil record. These include equids (Cavanaugh et al. . 2003), archaeocete whales (Mace and Wood 2005), caseids (Aaron 2014 a ), Mesozoic avians (Garner et al. 2013), tyrannosauroids (Aaron 2014 b ), and a growing literature on fossil hominid baraminology generating debate ( e.g., Wise 2005; Wood 2010; Wood 2011a; Wood 2013; Wood 2016b). Starting in 2010 a brief debate raised interesting questions, premised in part on a misunderstanding of the role of multidimensional scaling (MDS) in statistical baraminology. The claim was that common ancestry between coelurosaurians and birds was supported even by creationist usage of MDS and baraminic distance correlation (BDC). It was argued, further, that these methods demonstrated continuity of morphological form between a wide range of dinosaur groups ( e.g., basal Saurischia, Theropoda, Sauropodomorpha, etc.) (Senter 2010; Senter 2011; and Wood’s response in Wood 2011 b ). Cavanaugh used ANOPA to find overlapping clusters of coelurosaurian theropods, including V-shaped morphospatial relationships (Cavanaugh 2011). A BDC study on Weishampel (2004) identified discontinuity in 13 of 19