Re: Turtle ancestry (somewhat off-topic)

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

> T.A. Curtis wrote:
>
>         Actually, genetic sequencing seems to show that turtles are more
> closely related to crocodiles than crocs are to birds.  (See "A Molecular
> Phylogeny of Reptiles" by Hedges and Poling; Science v. 238, 12 February
> 1999.)  According to the study, birds split from the line leading to
> turtles 228±10.3 MYA while turtles and crocs split just 207±20.5 MYA.
>         How anapsid turtles would be clustered with diapsid crocs is
> perplexing, to say the least.  But that's what's so fun about science.

Axel Meyer of the University of Konstanz in Germany reported in 1998 
in  the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (Vol. 95, p. 
14226) that from mitochondrial DNA, the closest living relatives of 
turtles are birds and crocodiles, with lizards, snakes, and mammals 
more distant. He suggested that the anapsid condition in turtles is 
secondary. -- Jeff Hecht