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Supplementary Data to: New evidence on deinonychosaurian dinosaurs from the Late Cretaceous of Patagonia

PHYLOGENETIC ANALYSIS

The phylogenetic dataset of 223 characters scored across 57taxa is based on Hwang et al. (2004) and Xu and Norell (2004), with the inclusion of: A) an additional character, B) modifications of two character definitions, and C) the new Patagonian form Neuquenraptorargentinus (see below).

A) The added character is defined as:

Character 223. Presence of a posteriorly oriented flange or crest on the posterior surface of metatarsal IV: absent (0), or present (1).

The derived character state was scored as present in: Neuquenraptor argentinus (MCF PVPH 77), Microraptor zhaoianus (Hwang et al., 2002; CAGS 20-8-001), Sinovenator changii (X. Xu, pers. com.; IVPP V12583), Mei long (Xu and Norell, 2004; IVPP V12733), and Sinornithoides youngi (IVPP V9612).

Sinornithosaurus milenii was scored as uncertain with character states 0 and 1. The fourth metatarsal of the type specimen of this taxon (IVPP V12811) bears a prominent flange on its plantar surface, however, the two dimensional preservation of this specimen precludes an unambiguous determination for this character. This flange could be homologous with the posteriorly oriented flange present in the three dimensionally preserved Neuquenraptor argentinus, or alternatively to the medially oriented flange present in derived dromaeosaurids (e.g., Velociraptor mongoliensis). Furthe remains of this taxon are needed in order to determine the character state for Sinornothosaurus milenii.

The plesiomorphic condition of this character was scored in: Allosaurus fragilis, Sinraptor dongi, Tyrannosaurus rex, Avimimus portentosus, Caudipteryx zoui, Alvarezsaurus calvoi, Mononykus olecranus, Shuuvuia deserti, Rahoonavis ostromi, Confuciusornis sanctus, Troodon formosus, Saurornitholestes langstoni, Deinonychus antirrhopus, and Velociraptor mongoliensis. All other taxa were scored as missing data.

B) Characters that were redefined:

Character 200: The definition of character 200 was modified in order to incorporate an additional character state describing the incipient arctometatarsalian condition present in several basal deinonychosaurian and two basal ornithomimosaurs. The modified character state definitions used here are detailed as follows:

Metatarsal III robust and not pinched proximally. This character state was scored in Allosaurus fragilis, Sinraptor dongi, Ornitholestes hermanni, Huaxiagnathus orientalis, Sinosauropteryx prima, Compsognathus longipes, Alvarezsaurus calvoi, Patagonykus puertai, Segnosaurus galbinensis, Alxasaurus elesitaiensis, Caudipteryx zoui, Ingenia yangshini, Conchoraptor gracilis, Citipati osmolskae, Rahoonavis ostromi, Archaeopteryx litographica, Confuciusornis sanctus, Achillobator giganticus, Deinonychus antirrhopus, and Velociraptor mongoliensis.

The new character state is defined as: subarctometatarsal condition, with metatarsal III proximally pinched between metatarsals II and IV, being triangular in cross section and visible on the anterior and posterior surfaces of proximal end of metatarsus. This character state was scored in Sinornithosaurus milenii (Xu et al., 1999; IVPP V12811), Sinovenator changii (Xu et al., 2002; IVPP V12583), Microraptor zhaoianus (Xu Norell, 2004) Mei long (Xu and Norell, 2004; IVPP V12733), Garudimimus brevipes (Barsbold and Osmolska, 1990), and Harpymimus okladnikovi (Barsbold and Osmolska, 1990).

Arctometatarsal condition, with metatarsal III proximally pinched between metatarsals II and IV, the latter two contacting one another proximally in front of III. This character state was scored in Tyrannosaurus rex, Albertosaurus libratus, Ornithomimus edmonticus, Anserimimus planinychus, Archaeornithomimus asiaticus, Struthiomimus altus, Gallimimus bullatus, Chirostenotes pergracilus, Avimimus portentosus, Troodon formosus, and Saurornithoides mongoliensis.

Fully arctometatarsal condition, with metatarsal III not reaching the proximal end of metatarsus. This character state is exclusively present in Mononykus olecranus and Shuuvuia deserti.

All other taxa were scored with missing entries.

Character 204: The character state 1 of character 204 was modified as follows: shaft of metatarsal IV mediolaterally widened and narrow in cross section. This slight modification of the character definition was employed to emphasize the proportions of the metatarsal shaft rather than the “flat” condition of metatarsal IV (see character 223).

C) Character scoring for Neuquenraptor argentinus

The character scoring for Neuquenraptor argentinus into the analyzed dataset is:

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For a complete character list and data matrix see Xu and Norell (2004), and its supplementary information available at: http://

PHYLOGENETIC RESULTS

The phylogenetic dataset of 223 characters scored across 57 taxa was analyzed under equally weighted parsimony using the software TNT (Goloboff et al., 2003). A heuristic tree search strategy was employed, consisting of a thousand replicates of random addition sequences plus TBR branch swapping, followed by a final round of TBR branch swapping. Each replicated hold a maximum of ten most parsimonious trees and zero-length branches were collapsed with the strictest criterion (i.e., when they lacked support under any of the most parsimonious reconstructions). Trees were rooted as in using Allosaurus as in refthe original analysesH, (Norell et al., ...... Tyrannosauridae, Ornithomimidae, Alvarezsauridae, Therizinosauroidea, and Oviraptorosauria were taken as the outgroup. 2002; Hwang et al., 2004; Xu and Norell, 2004). The parsimony analysis resulted in a set of 7776 most parsimonious trees of 648 steps (CI = 0.417, RI = 0.742) found in 727 out of 1000 replicates.

In the present analysis, Neuquenraptor is depicted nested within Deinonychosauria due to the presence of the following internested synapomorphies (characters marked with an asterisk have ambiguous optimization). See strict consensus figure below for node numbers:

-Node 68 (Coelurosauria): ascending process of astragalus separated by transverse groove or fossa across base [character 194-1]

-Node 66 (Maniraptora): proximal end of chevrons of proximal caudals elongate anteroposteriorly, flattened and plate-like [character 122-1]*acctran

-Node 64: absence of fourth trochanter on femur [character 184-1]*acctran

-Node 72 (Paraves): metatarsal III with ginglymoidal distal end [character 199-1]

-Node 71 (Deinonychosauria): subarctometatarsal condition [character 200-1]; penultimate phalanx of pedal digit II highly modified for extreme hyper-extension, ungual more strongly curved and about 50% larger than that of digit III [character 201-1]*deltran; caudal surface of metatarsal IV with posteriorly oriented flange [character 223-1]*acctran

-Node 70 (on the basis of the following unequivocal synapomorpDromaeosauridae)hies: metatarsal II with ginglymoidal distal end [character 198-1]. characters (indicar número).... (citar definición del caracter).

Below, the complete strict consensus of the 7776 most parsimonious trees and the reduced strict consensus of the same set of trees are shown. The reduced consensus is calculated with the exclusion of Saurornitholestes langstoni in order to show that all most parsimonious hypothesis agree in the basal position whithin Dromaeosauridae of Neuquenraptor, Unenlagia, Microraptor, and Sinornithosaurus. In contrast, Saurornitholestes langstoni is alternatively depicted in several positions within Dromaeosauridae, collapsing this entire clade in the complete strict consensus of the most parsimonious trees:

COMPLETE STRICT CONSENSUS

REDUCED STRICT CONSENSUS (excluding Saurornitholestes langstoni)

REFERENCES:

Barsbold, R. and Osmolska, H. 1990. Ornithomimosauria. In: Weishampel D., Dodson P. & Osmólska (eds.), The Dinosauria, pp. 225-244. University of California Press.

Clark, J.M., Norell, M.A., & Makovicky, P.J. Cladistic approaches to the relaitonships of birds to other theropod dinosaurs. In: Mesozoic birds. Above the head of dinosaurs (L.M. Chiappe & L. Witmer, eds.), University of California Press (2002).

Nona ver. 1.9. SoftwareGoloboff, P.A., Farris, J.S., & Nixon, K. 2003. TNT ver. 1.0. Programand documentation distributed by the author. Instituto Miguel Lillo, Tucuman, Argentina.available from the authors and at

H. Hwuang, et al., 2002.Hwang, S.H., Norell, M.A., Ji, Q., & Gao, K. 2002. New specimens of Microraptor zhaoianus (Theropoda: Dromaeosauridae) from Northeastern China. American Museum Novitates 3381, 1-44.

Hwang, S.H., Norell, M.A., Ji, Q., & Gao, K. 2004. A large compsognathid from the Early Cretaceous Yixian Formation of China. Journal of Systematic Palaeontology 2: 13–30.

Xu, X., Wang, X. & Wu, X. 1999. A dromaeosaurid dinosaur with a filamentous integument from the Yixian Formation of China. Nature 401:262-266.

Xu, X., Norell, M., Wang, X.-L., Makovicky, P.J., and Wu, X. 2002. A basal troodontid from the Early Cretaceous of China. Nature 415:780-784.

Xu, X., and Norell, M.A. 2004. A new troodontid dinosaur from China with avian-like sleeping posture. Nature 431:838-841