Sauria
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| Saurians Temporal range: Permian - Recent |
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| Tuatara | |
Scientific classification  |
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| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Chordata |
| Class: | Reptilia |
| clade: | Neodiapsida |
| clade: | Sauria Gauthier, 1984 |
| Subgroups | |
Sauria is a clade of reptiles that includes all living diapsids, as well as their common ancestor and all its extinct descendants. The ancestral saurian was probably a small lizard-like creature living in the Permian Period. This crown group is diagnosed by a number of details in skull and skeleton, and comprises the two important clades Lepidosauromorpha and Archosauromorpha.
The term "Sauria" has previously been used as a synonym of Lacertilia, a suborder of Squamata that includes all lizards but excludes snakes. This classification is rarely used today because Sauria so-defined is a paraphyletic group.
[edit] References
- Callaway, J.M. (1997), Ichthyosauria: Introduction, in JM Callaway & EL Nicholls (eds.), Ancient Marine Reptiles. Academic Press, pp. 3-16.
- Tree of Life Project <http://tolweb.org/Diapsida/14866>
[edit] External links
- Sauria cladogram
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