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Re: definition of "reptile"
I think David Schwimmer is basically on the right track here, and in
fact he is speaking for what seems to be a majority of
paleontologists and vertebrate zoologists. As I see it, the biggest
problem with talking about "reptiles" isn't so much that this is a
paraphyletic group (because it traditionally excludes birds), but
that the term often has been used to refer to any and all Paleozoic
or early Mesozoic amniotes no matter how little they have to do with
proper diapsids. For example, things like early synapsids and
parareptiles (procolophonids, pareiasaurs, probably turtles) are
often called "reptiles." If people would just be consistent and call
all amniotes OR all diapsids "reptiles," we could perhaps substitute
Reptilia for either Amniota or Diapsida. But things have just gotten
too confusing at this point - there are even some who would have the
term "reptiles" stand for Sauropsida (Diapsida + turtles). Therefore,
I agree that we should just drop the term completely.