Re: So are turtles now crocodiles?

[Jeff Hecht <jhecht@world.std.com>]

Archosaur J wrote:
>In regards to the recent issue in science with the genetic studies on turtles
>and crocodiles, if turtles are their closest living relatives then does that
>make turtles secondarily archosaurian?

There was a paper late last year in Proceedings of the National Academy of
Sciences (I think) reporting another genetic study that came to the same
conclusion. Turtles are much closer to birds and crocodiles than to
lizards, so they are not true anapsids or a surviving type of basal
reptile. As I understand it, this does not _necessarily_ mean turtles are
archosaurs, but it definitely raises some more interesting questions about
reptilian replationships -- Jeff Hecht