With the massive influx recently of new oviraptorosaurs, taxonomic changes are likely to occur with the internal nomenclature of many clades, but lately much of that nomenclature has been left alone. It has seemed better to wait until the phylogenies are far, far more stable than they have been recently. This has meant that many terms of classic use, such as Barsbold’s Oviraptorinae, Ingeniinae (1981) and “conchoraptorines” (taxa similar to Conchoraptor gracilis Barsbold, 1986) have been terms of art more than qualified taxonomic labels. Other clades that have been named and are supported by various authors, such as Caudipteridae (poorly named as it is) and Elmisauridae (a synonmy of Caenagnathidae under the Linnaean System) have fallen by the wayside. Internal compositions of these clades are so weakly supported they collapse under most attempts to compare the numerous trees they produce. Even with Cau’s large tree and it’s far better internal support for many clades than — say — the TWG trees, these structures are shaky. I am inclinded to the tree at the top of this post as a phylogram, a product of my imagination rather than one of raw data. It excludes some oviraptorosaurs (like Ojoraptorsaurus boerei, Shixinggia oblita, Luoyanggia liudianensis, Microvenator celer), especially some juveniles (Yulong mini), and makes little sense of the “citipatiine” complex which includes MPC-D 100/42. All short-hand oviraptorids (“ingeniines”) appear to be “citipatiine” grade to the degree of cranial crest development, whilst the crestless kin form the “conchoraptorines,” but this is really a taste issue. All in all, this is meant merely to be a roadmap for testing against: My assumptions versus the data. It also helps to set a larger “what the best-known taxa” include.
Barsbold R. 1981. Беззубйе жыщнйе динозаврй Монголий (Edentulous carnivorous dinosaurs of Mongolia). Трудй – Совместная Совестко-Монгольской Палеотологыческая Зкспедитсия — Joint Soviet-Mongolian Paleontological Expedition, Transactions 15: 28-39, 124. (in Russian, w/ English summary)
Barsbold R. 1986. Raubdinosaurier Oviraptoren [The robbing dinosaurs — oviraptors]. pg. 210-223 in Vorob’yeva (ed.) Herpetologische Untersuchungen in der Mongolischen Volksrepublik [Herpetological investigations from the People’s Republic of Mongolia]. (Akademia Nauk, SSSR, Moscow.) (in Russian, /w German & English abstract)