Re: Turtles and Crocodylians are not Reptiles - no? What are they?

["T. Michael Keesey" <keesey@gmail.com>]

On Sun, Jul 20, 2008 at 9:12 PM, Tim Williams
<twilliams_alpha@hotmail.com> wrote:
>
> Personally, I prefer the name Sauropsida for the group that includes all 
> extant reptiles, as well as birds, but not mammals (which are synapsids, not 
> sauropsids).  If Reptilia is the same as Sauropsida, then mammals did not 
> evolve from from 'reptiles', which is a departure from the historical usage 
> of the term 'reptile'.

There is almost no way for them to be the same--_Sauropsida_ is a
branch-based group (specifically a total group) and _Reptilia_ sensu
Gauthier is a node-based group (specifically a crown group). They
might have the same known membership, but that doesn't mean they're
the same thing--the latter is a subset of the former.

I prefer abandoning (or at least deformalizing) the term "Reptilia",
but it does leave the crown group without a good name, beyond "crown
sauropsids".
-- 
T. Michael Keesey
Director of Technology
Exopolis, Inc.
2894 Rowena Avenue Ste. B
Los Angeles, California 90039
http://exopolis.com/
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