A Review of Dromaeosaurid Systematics and Paravian Phylogeny

Abstract

Abstract Coelurosauria is the most diverse clade of theropod dinosaurs. Much of this diversity is present in Paraves—the clade of dinosaurs containing dromaeosaurids, troodontids, and avialans. Paraves has over 160 million years of evolutionary history that continues to the present day. The clade represents the most diverse living tetrapod group (there are over 9000 extant species of Aves—a word used here as synonomous with “bird”), and it is at the root of the paravian radiation, when dromaeosaurids, troodontids, and avialans were diverging from one another, that we find the morphology and soft tissue changes associated with the origin of modern avian flight. Within the first 15 million years of known paravian evolutionary history members of this clade exhibited a difference of nearly four orders of magnitude in body size, a value that is similar to the extreme body size disparity present today in mammalian carnivorans, avians, and varanoid squamates. In this respect, Paraves is an important case study i...