Re: [dinosaur] Mesosaurs (+ parareptiles as diapsids) + Coahuila State dinosaur find history + more

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

Gesendet: Sonntag, 15. Oktober 2017 um 20:09 Uhr
Von: "Ronald Orenstein" <ron.orenstein@rogers.com>

> I'll be very interested to hear the rationale for including pareiasaurs among 
> diapsids!

Rationale? This is a phylogenetic analysis. A broad range of early amniotes is 
included (and already was in the 1995 version), and – unexpectedly (M. Laurin, 
pers. comm.) – the "parareptiles" have come out as diapsids. It's a result, not 
a decision. Now that phylogenetics is a science and no longer an art, your own 
results can surprise you; you don't know in advance anymore what your own data 
support.

> Not to mention exactly where among the diapsids a turtle-parareptile lineage 
> falls out...

That will require adding more taxa, because at present the "younginiforms" are 
"the most crownward diapsids included in the analyses" as the abstract says.