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

inclusionof 37 taxa and85characters,which is a small representation of the original 348 characters. The BDC (Fig. 46) shows four distinct blocks of positive correlation: 1) Therizinosauridae (2 taxa), 2) Paraves, 3) Oviraptorosauria, and 4) the rest of the taxa. The therizinosaurid block shares either negative correlation or no correlation with any of the other taxa in the analysis. The paravian block has only a few instances of shared positive correlation with the oviraptorosaur block, but the rest of the pairings are either negative correlations or no correlations. The oviraptorosaur block also shares some positive correlations with some ornithomimosaur taxa from the block of remaining taxa. The 3D MDS results (Fig. 47) show four clusters of taxa separated by gaps in morphological space. The two therizinosaurid taxa are widely separated from the remaining taxa. Of the remaining taxa, three clusters are obvious: 1) Paraves, 2) Oviraptorosauria, and 3) the remaining taxa. As a result, we determined to analyze each of these blocks separately with BDC and 3D MDS. BDC analysis of the paravian subset of Zanno (2010) (121 characters, 12 taxa, 0.39 TRC (the TRC was lowered to include Troodon )) resulted in two blocks of positive correlation that share no correlation of any kind between each other (Fig. 48). One block contains dromaeosaurids, and the other contains troodontids. Archaeopteryx , Confuciusornis , and Buitreraptor do not share any kind of correlation with any other taxa, except that Confuciusornis shares negative correlation with two troodontids. The 3D MDS results (Fig. 49) show Archaeopteryx and Confuciusornis far away from the other taxa. Buitreraptor is clustered closely with the other dromaeosaurids, and there is space between the dromaeosaurid and troodontid clusters. The troodontids are split into two pairs of taxa: 1) Mei and Sinovenator , and 2) Sinornithoides and Troodon . The oviraptorosaur subset (68 characters, 15 taxa, and 0.3 TRC (we lowered the TRC to include more oviraptorosaurs that we could not include in the full analysis)) contains 8 oviraptorosaur taxa and seven outgroup taxa (one therizinosaur, three ornithomimosaurs, and three paravians). The BDC results show three large blocks of positive correlation that are unconnected by any other correlation (Fig. 50): 1) Oviraptorosauria, 2) Paraves + Falcarius , and 3) Ornithomimosauria. The oviraptorosaur Incisivosaurus does not positively correlate with any taxa in the analysis, but it does share negative correlation with the ornithomimosaurs. The 3D MDS (Fig. 51) shows Incisivosaurus far away from all other taxa. Additionally, there are three clusters of taxa corresponding to the three blocks of positive correlation from the BDC. Within the oviraptorosaur cluster, Avimimus + Chirostenotes are somewhat removed from the other taxa. Most therizinosauroid species are only known from fragmentary specimens. Most of the other analyses we conducted only featured two or three therizinosaur taxa. The Zanno (2010) matrix contains the best dataset for therizinosaurs, so we lowered the TRC to 0.3 to include as many taxa as possible and still have over 50 characters (62 characters, 16 taxa: eight therizinosaurs and eight outgroup taxa). The BDC results show three major blocks of positive correlation (Fig. 52). Therizinosaurids along with “basal” therizinosauroids Alxasaurus and Beipiaosaurus make up the bottom block of taxa. In addition, the “basal” therizinosaur Jianchangosaurus shares positive correlation with Beipiaosaurus . Falcarius , however, does not share positive correlation with any other therizinosaur, and it actually shares negative correlation with several forms. Instead, it shares positive correlation with the oviraptorosaur block and Garudimimus , which is in the ornithomimosaur block. The caenagnathid oviraptorosaur Chirostenotes also shares positive correlation with Garudimimus . The 3D MDS results (Fig. 53) are intriguing in that the therizinosaurs (to the exclusion of Falcarius ) form a trajectory with Jianchangosaurus on one end and Segnosaurus on the other. Falcarius is off by itself, but closest to the oviraptorosaur cluster. McLain et al. ◀ Feathered dinosaurs reconsidered ▶ 2018 ICC 488 Figure 30. BDC results for the Therizinosauria + Oviraptorosauria subset of the Brusatte et al. (2014) dataset. Black squares indicate significant positive correlation, whereas open circles indicate significant negative correlation. Figure 31. MDS results of the Therizinosauria + Oviraptorosauria subset of the Brusatte et al. (2014) dataset. Colors: pink – Oviraptorosauria; turquoise – Therizinosauria.