Re: Turtles are parareptiles, and Eunotosaurus is their sister

["Dora Smith" <villandra@austin.rr.com>]

Oh. OK. Thanks.  That makes me feel better.

Therapods behind me go, we knew it!   'Dyanptids is twuly alien. Wight in 
their with turtles!    We knew there had to be an explanation.

Yours,
Dora Smith
Austin, TX
tiggernut24@yahoo.com

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Thomas R. Holtz, Jr." <tholtz@umd.edu>
To: <villandra@austin.rr.com>; <dinosaur@usc.edu>
Sent: Wednesday, June 09, 2010 9:08 AM
Subject: RE: Turtles are parareptiles, and Eunotosaurus is their sister


> > From: owner-DINOSAUR@usc.edu [mailto:owner-DINOSAUR@usc.edu]
> > On Behalf Of Dora Smith
> >
> > Turtles aren't reptiles, now.   The rest of it got lost in
> > the technical
> > language.
>
> Sorry, but really it isn't that technical...
>
> > I'm afraid that was Eunotosaurus is doesn't tell
> > me much right
> > off the bat.   It doesn't sound like the term for "basal reptile".
>
> Eunotosaurus, a Middle Permian South African reptile:
> http://www.all-about-reptiles.com/images/eunotosaurus.gif
>
> > Pretty soon, there will be no reptiles left that are reptiles.
>
> Using the taxonomy in this paper Reptilia includes two major branches,
> parareptiles and eureptiles. Parareptiles ("anapsids" of some useage) are 
> a
> group of mostly Permian and Triassic forms. Eureptiles are diapsids and
> their closest relatives.
>
> So turtles are still reptiles, but they are not closer to the
> tuatara-lizard-snake lineage than to the alligator-bird lineage (both
> alternatives had been proposed in recent years.)
>
> > What's a crocodile; a paratherapod?
>
> An archosaur.
>
> > What about a snake?
> A lepidosaur.
>
> Thomas R. Holtz, Jr.
> Email: tholtz@umd.edu Phone: 301-405-4084
> Office: Centreville 1216
> Senior Lecturer, Vertebrate Paleontology
> Dept. of Geology, University of Maryland
> http://www.geol.umd.edu/~tholtz/
> Fax: 301-314-9661
>
> Faculty Director, Science & Global Change Program, College Park Scholars
> http://www.geol.umd.edu/sgc
> Fax: 301-314-9843
>
> Mailing Address: Thomas R. Holtz, Jr.
> Department of Geology
> Building 237, Room 1117
> University of Maryland
> College Park, MD 20742 USA