Talk:Thuringothyris

Thuringothyris is not the basalmost captorhinid

“A noval phylogenic study of primitive reptile relationships by Müller & Reisz in 2006 recovered Thuringothyris as a sister taxon of the Captorhinidae, and therefore, by definition, Thuringothyris represents the basalmost known captorhinid.”

No, there is no definition ever published that justifies Thuringothyris to be assigned to the Captorhinidae. Müller & Reisz (2006) always speak of a “Thurigothyris/captorhinid clade” implying that Thuringothyris is not considered a member of the Captorhinidae. They explicitly state that Thuringothyris does not have “swollen” neural arches, a feature that is shared by all Captorhinids whose postcranial skeleton is known. Hence, these authors imply an apomorphy-based definition of the Captorhinidae that excludes all basal eureptiles without such “swollen” neural arches. Consequently, Thuringothyris is a basal eureptile outside the Captorhinidae, despite the fact that it is geologically younger than Concordia. --Gretarsson (talk) 22:07, 16 July 2015 (UTC)