Talk:Tsylmosuchus

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Rauisuchians[edit]

"...genus of rauisuchian that may be a member of the family Rauisuchidae..." The average Wikipedia reader may well ask, "But, aren't all rauisuchians by definition members of the family Rauisuchidae?" At least, I do.--Wetman (talk) 22:16, 14 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Rauisuchians belong to the (probably paraphyletic) order Rauisuchia. Rauisuchia traditionally includes the families Rauisuchidae, Prestosuchidae, Poposauridae, and Ctenosauriscidae, although more recent phylogenetic studies have shown some different groupings. So just because something's a rauisuchian doesn't mean that it's a rauisuchid. Smokeybjb (talk) 03:35, 16 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]
The gist of that could be in a footnote perhaps. Wikipedia is meant for the moderately well-prepared but non-specialist reader.--Wetman (talk) 04:32, 16 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]
Yeah, you're probably right, it does sound a bit confusing. How about "... genus of archosaur that may be a member of the family Rauisuchidae. However, it may be a more basal member of the order Rauisuchia that is not within the family Rauisuchidae..."? Maybe we could go into more detail in a "Classification" section, but I can't find much more information than this. Smokeybjb (talk) 16:04, 16 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]