Comment on A Strange Collective by Qilong
What are the other options? The 36-foot-behemoth theory is pretty much dead...
So far, the "unenlagiine" theory is based on the attempt as ease of options: unenlagiines are the only known dromaeosaurs in South America, it's from SA, it seems to be a dromaeosaur, so therefore it's an unenlagiine. This argument is predicated on very little actual details.
What else could it be?
There is the original impression, that it is a "carnosaur." It may also be a range of other things. The problem lies in its identification.
Carrano's new tetanuran phylogeny suggested carcharodontosaurid affinities; what say you?
That seems plausible. This backs up what I thought might be the case when the pubis was correctly positioned, and not as it was assumed to be when described. Novas & Agnolin presumed the pubis was maniraptoran because they thought the pubis had a large lateral projection on it; Carrano et al. flip the pubis and make that "lateral projection" part of the pubic apron, which makes the thing much more carnosaurian. So ... carcharodontosaurid? Sure, why not.
Didn't Novas & Agnolin (2004) pretty much confirm its maniraptoran affinities?
They were under the impression that the flange halfway down the shaft was lateral, and not an apron. As an apron, the pubis is more carnosaurian-like.