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

Oviraptorids consistently show positive correlation with each other and cluster together. However, other oviraptorosaur taxa such as caenagnathids (e.g., Chirostenotes and Anzu ), caudipterids, and “basal” oviraptorosaurs (e.g., Avimimus , Incisivosaurus , and Protarchaeopteryx ) often do not correlate positively with oviraptorids or cluster together with them in MDS. Caudipteryx, Chirostenotes, Microvenator, and Avimimus positively correlate with oviraptorids in the oviraptorosaur subset analysis of Zanno (2010) (Fig. 50), and they are closely clustered with the oviraptorids in the 3D MDS results (Fig. 51). Incisivosaurus , however, does not cluster or positively correlate with the other oviraptorosaurs. Incisivosaurus proved to be a difficult taxon in several of the analyses. As in the Zanno (2010) oviraptorosaur subset, Avimimus and Chirostenotes positively correlate with at least one oviraptorid each in the BDC results of the van der Reest and Currie (2017) oviraptorosaur subset (Fig. 60). However, Caudipteryx does not show evidence of continuity in this analysis, and neither does Protarchaeopteryx . The Lamanna et al. (2014) analysis was the only one that specifically focused on oviraptorosaurs. Its BDC results do not show positive correlation between any oviraptorid and non-oviraptorid oviraptorosaurs at a 0.5 TRC. However, at a 0.3 TRC there is shared positive correlation between Gigantoraptor and Anzu and Conchoraptor (Appendix, Fig. 74). This hints at the possibility that many of the non-oviraptorid oviraptorosaurs probably are continuous with oviraptorids, but that the taxa connecting them are poorly known. At this point, we can say Oviraptoridae is a monobaramin and Oviraptorosauria is an apobaramin. However, it is difficult to know exactly how many holobaramins Oviraptorosauria contains. It could be one holobaramin, or several (possibly Oviraptoridae, Caudipteridae, and Caenagnathidae are separate holobaramins). E. Therizinosauria Therizinosaurs are peculiar animals with stocky bodies, long necks, scythe-like hand claws, and superficially ornithischian-like skulls that are unfortunately known from rather fragmentary remains. In fact, the only really well known therizinosaurs are the basal forms Falcarius and Jianchangosaurus , which are both outside of Therizinosauroidea. Beipiaosaurus and Alxasaurus are known from partial skeletons, but the only members of Therizinosauridae known from somewhat decent remains are Nothronychus , Segnosaurus , and Erlikosaurus . As such, including therizinosaurs McLain et al. ◀ Feathered dinosaurs reconsidered ▶ 2018 ICC 497 Figure 48. BDC results of the Paraves subset of the Zanno (2010) dataset. Black squares indicate significant positive correlation, whereas open circles indicate significant negative correlation. Figure 50. BDC results of the Oviraptorosauria subset of the Zanno (2010) dataset. Black squares indicate significant positive correlation, whereas open circles indicate significant negative correlation. Figure 49. MDS results of the Paraves subset of the Zanno (2010) dataset. Colors: orange – Dromaeosauridae; yellow – Troodontidae; light green – Avialae. Figure 51. MDS results of the Oviraptorosauria subset of the Zanno (2010) analysis. Colors: orange – Dromaeosauridae; yellow – Troodontidae; pink – Oviraptorosauria; turquoise – Therizinosauria; blue – Ornithomimosauria.