How close are Caseasaurs and Diadectids?
Pretty darn close it appears.
And these two clades have NEVER been closely associated before. This is the sort of wonderful nesting you get when you just let it happen with a large gamut of reptiles.
Of course this goes against the grain of traditional paleontology that puts caseasaurs like Eothyris, Oedaleops, Casea, Cotylorhynchus and Ennatosaurus improbably and awkwardly alongside synapsids, like Varanodon and Ophiacodon.
Tradition also puts diadectids like Orobates and Diadectes outside the Reptilia alongside other amphibians. The large reptile tree solves all such problems. The two clades, Diadectidae and Caseasauria, are close kin as it turns out. And the skull images bear this out, if you just ignore the lateral temporal fenestra, which is a trait that comes and goes with the Millerettidae, of which the caseasaurs are members.
Figure 1. The diadectid, Orobates, alonside the casesaurs, Oedaleops, Ennatosaurus and Casea. Boy they sure do look alike, overall and in several details save the lateral temporal fenestra. That used to be a big deal that falsely segregated taxa. Now it’s just another character trait. Part of the mix.
I hate it when a blind eye is turned to toward such relationships. Tradition trumps testing in most cases. That’s why I’m here… to encourage young free thinkers to test everything in the Reptilia to see if it matches tradition or the large reptile tree.
Both clades find a common ancestor close to Romeria primus and Concordia, two taxa known chiefly from skulls close to the the base of the new Lepidosauromorpha, Cephalerpeton and Captorhinidae.
As always, I encourage readers to see specimens, make observations and come to your own conclusions. Test. Test. And test again.
Evidence and support in the form of nexus, pdf and jpeg files will be sent to all who request additional data.
2012-12-06 17:22:37
Source: http://pterosaurheresies.wordpress.com/2012/12/07/how-close-are-caseasaurs-and-diadectids/
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