Tuataras (was RE: turtle origins?)

["Thomas R. Holtz, Jr." <tholtz@geol.umd.edu>]

> From: owner-dinosaur@usc.edu [mailto:owner-dinosaur@usc.edu]On Behalf Of
> ekaterina amalitzkaya
>
> In the Hedges paper on turtle phylogeny the sphenodon was moved up to the
> archosauromorph clade too. Has this position for the tuataras and their
> extinct kin showed up in non-molecular trees?

I can't say that I know the sphenodontian literature that well, but I can't
recall a recent morphological study that puts these guys as anything other
than closer to squamates than to archosaurs.  In molecular trees they have
bounced around a lot.


                Thomas R. Holtz, Jr.
                Vertebrate Paleontologist
Department of Geology           Director, Earth, Life & Time Program
University of Maryland          College Park Scholars
                College Park, MD  20742
http://www.geol.umd.edu/~tholtz/tholtz.htm
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