Pareiasaurs to scale in phylogenetic order
Yesterday, we looked at Li and Yuan 2025,
and their description of Yinshanosaurus the newest pareiasaur.
Unfortunately their cladogram (Fig 1) failed to resolve a large clade of pareiasaurs.
That often indicates the presence of a wild card taxon that should set to the side for being incomplete. That’s common practice in the large reptile tree (LRT, 2338 taxa) where incomplete taxa are colored red after testing and then removed from the matrix.
After thirty seconds of searching, Obirkovia is probably that incomplete taxon (Fig 1). Obirkovia is a pareiasaur know from a quadratojugal.
Figure 2. Cladogram from Yi and Liu 2024 showing their taxon list and their placement of Yinshanosaurus within their Pareiasauria.
” data-medium-file=”https://pterosaurheresies.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/07/yinshanosaurus.cladogram588.jpg?w=268″ data-large-file=”https://pterosaurheresies.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/07/yinshanosaurus.cladogram588.jpg?w=584″ class=”size-full wp-image-93460″ src=”https://pterosaurheresies.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/07/yinshanosaurus.cladogram588.jpg” alt=”Figure 2. Cladogram from Yi and Liu 2024 showing their taxon list and their placement of Yinshanosaurus within their Pareiasauria.” width=”584″ height=”654″ srcset=”https://pterosaurheresies.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/07/yinshanosaurus.cladogram588.jpg?w=584&h=654 584w, https://pterosaurheresies.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/07/yinshanosaurus.cladogram588.jpg?w=134&h=150 134w, https://pterosaurheresies.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/07/yinshanosaurus.cladogram588.jpg?w=268&h=300 268w, https://pterosaurheresies.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/07/yinshanosaurus.cladogram588.jpg 588w” sizes=”(max-width: 584px) 100vw, 584px” />
Figure 2. Cladogram from Yi and Liu 2024 showing their taxon list and their placement of Yinshanosaurus within their Pareiasauria.
The pareiasaurs tested in the LRT
are shown here (Fig 2) in phylogenetic order and to scale. Nearly all have a complete skull, not always with a mandible. Only a few have post-crania. Arrows point to sister clades of small horned pareiasaurs that ultimately gave rise to softshell and hardshell turtles in the LRT, recovered here in 2016.
In the LRT Diadectes, Procolphon and Bolosaurus are sister taxa to the pareiasaur clade that starts with tiny Kudnu (Fig 2) and Carbonodraco.
Figure 2. Pareiasaurs tested in the LRT to scale and in phylogenetic order. Note the lower two lines represent softshell turtle ancestors and hardshell turtle ancestors. Click to enlarge.
” data-medium-file=”https://pterosaurheresies.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/07/pareiasaurs2scale588-1.jpg?w=187″ data-large-file=”https://pterosaurheresies.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/07/pareiasaurs2scale588-1.jpg?w=584″ class=”size-full wp-image-93489″ src=”https://pterosaurheresies.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/07/pareiasaurs2scale588-1.jpg” alt=”Figure 2. Pareiasaurs tested in the LRT to scale and in phylogenetic order. Note the lower two lines represent softshell turtle ancestors and hardshell turtle ancestors. Click to enlarge.” width=”584″ height=”935″ srcset=”https://pterosaurheresies.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/07/pareiasaurs2scale588-1.jpg?w=584&h=935 584w, https://pterosaurheresies.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/07/pareiasaurs2scale588-1.jpg?w=94&h=150 94w, https://pterosaurheresies.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/07/pareiasaurs2scale588-1.jpg?w=187&h=300 187w, https://pterosaurheresies.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/07/pareiasaurs2scale588-1.jpg 588w” sizes=”(max-width: 584px) 100vw, 584px” />
Figure 2. Pareiasaurs tested in the LRT to scale and in phylogenetic order. Note the lower two lines represent softshell turtle ancestors and hardshell turtle ancestors. Click to enlarge.
Please note this pertinent change:
Arganaceras (Fig 2), known from a loose assembly of skull bones, now nests with the new Li and Yuan taxon, Yinshanosaurus (Fig 2). This newest complete pareiasaur skull clarified bone identities and so corrected earlier errors in Arganaceras.
Also note: The cladogram in Yi and Liu 2025 (Fig 1) did not nest Arganaceras with Yinshanosaurus as in the LRT.
Corrections to earlier errors are always welcome,
wherever they come from and however long they take to be realized.
Realization is like discovery: the eyebrows go way up either way.
References
Yi J and Liu J 2025. The Tetrapod Fauna of the upper Permian Naobaogou Formation of China: A New mid-sized pareiasaur Yinshanosaurus angustus and its implications for the phylogenetic relationships of pareiasaurs. Papers in Palaeontology.11(3); e70020. DOI: doi.org/10.1002/spp2.70020[04 June 2025]
wiki/Bunostegos
wiki/Yinshanosaurus
Source: https://pterosaurheresies.wordpress.com/2025/07/03/pareiasaurs-to-scale-in-phylogenetic-order/
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