Re: Turtles are parareptiles, and Eunotosaurus is their sister

[Mike Taylor <mike@indexdata.com>]

On 9 June 2010 16:30, Jocelyn Falconnet <j.falconnet@gmail.com> wrote:
>>>> Using the taxonomy in this paper Reptilia includes two
>>> major branches,
>>>> parareptiles and eureptiles.
>>>>
>>>
>>> That is some truly horrible taxonomy.  So Reptilia contains Parareptilia
>>> (i.e. that which is "alongside Reptilia").  I guess they must have
>>> Pseudosuchia envy.
>>
>> :-)
>>
>> Take it up with E.C. Olson, though. These terms have been around since the
>> 1940s.
>
> Horrible name, yes, but widely used since the 40's indeed.
>
> Do we really have to abandon taxon name unfaithful to their original
> definition/meaning ?

No we don't.  It is, of course, the lesser of two evils to retain the names.

But that certainly doesn't mean we can't whine about it!