Re: JVP - Doswellia - Dilkes and Sues 2009

["David Marjanovic" <david.marjanovic@gmx.at>]

> For outgroups. Mesosuchus shares little with Prolacerta, except the 
> postparietals absent (12)  postaxial cervical intercentra absent  (45), 
> similar central ratios between cervicals and dorsals (47), all  this 
> according to Dilkes and Sues. So really,  not much. Prolacerta  remains a 
> good choice for outgroup, but not Mesosuchus.

Huh?

Outgroups don't need to be sister-groups of each other (and indeed aren't in 
this case). You can have a paraphyletic outgroup. Is that what you mean?

> Too bad we don't know which proterochampsid was used in analysis,  whether 
> Proterochampsa, Chanaresuchus, Tropidosuchus

Probably all of them. It ought to be mentioned somewhere, though. Is there 
supplementary information?

> Also, I note they report: "Data for [a large number of included taxa] 
> were obtained primarily from the literature." From what I've heard  from 
> referees, that's been outlawed.

Depends on the literature.