Longisquamidae

["Ken Kinman" <kinman@hotmail.com>]

Chris,
    I'm wondering if you are impressed by any of the putative 
synapomorphies given by Dave Peters, who cladistically nests Longisquamidae 
within Protopterosauria, a subclade of Ichthy-"something", subclade of 
Tapinoplatia, subclade of prolacertiform archosauromorphs.
    Do any of the particular characters he lists make you lean toward an 
archosauromorph placement, as opposed to an alternative placement (such as 
in lepidosauromorpha or among non-Saurian diapsids).
                    Cheers, Ken Kinman
P.S.    Oh, by the way, any opinion on whether the phenetic gap between 
Poposauridae and Sphenosuchidae is much bigger or smaller than the phenetic 
gap between Sphenosuchidae and basal Crocodyliformes?
********************************************************
> From: chris brochu <cbrochu@fmnh.org>
> Reply-To: cbrochu@fmnh.org
> To: dinosaur@usc.edu
> Subject: Re: Archosauromorph classification & Thecodonts
> Date: Wed, 21 Jun 2000 14:12:14 -0500
>
>
> >      Likewise, I will leave Longisquamidae and Sharovipterygidae as
> >incertae sedis within this order unless it shown they belong elsewhere.
> >They appear to be archosauromorphs,
>
> I'm not sure I agree.  I've seen Longisquama up close, and most of the
> "characters" shared in common with archosauromorphs could be just as easily
> interpreted as postmortem damage.  It's probably a diapsid of some sort,
> but that's as far as I would go.  One more reason why I no longer use
> Linnean ranks.
>
>
>
> chris
>
>
>
>
> ----------------------
> Christopher A. Brochu
> Department of Geology
> Field Museum of Natural History
> 1400 S. Lake Shore Drive
> Chicago, IL 60605
>
> voice: 312-665-7633
> fax: 312-665-7641
> electronic:  cbrochu@fmppr.fmnh.org
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