Kingdom Animalia Class Reptilia | Phylum Chordata Clade Sauria | |
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Clade Ankylopoda
Lyson et al., 2012 Similar Lepidosauria, Anapsid, Archosaur | ||
Ankylopoda is a clade that contains turtles and lepidosaurs (Tuatara, lizards and snakes) and their fossil relatives. This clade is supported based on microRNAs as well as the fossil record. Stem-turtles and lepidosaurs have unique skull elements and features not seen in archosaurs (represented by extant crocodilians and birds).
Classification
The cladogram below follows the most likely result found by another analysis of turtle relationships, this one using only fossil evidence, published by Rainer Schoch and Hans-Dieter Sues in 2015. This study found Eunotosaurus to be an actual early stem-turtle, though other versions of the analysis found weak support for it as a parareptile.
References
Ankylopoda Wikipedia(Text) CC BY-SA