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Yinshanosaurus: new pareiasaur here basal to hardshell turtles

Tuesday, July 1, 2025 14:25

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Yi and Liu 2025 described
a ‘new mid-sized pareiasaur, Yinshanosaurus angustus‘ (Fig 1). They also discussed its implications for phylogenetic relationships within the Pareiasauria.

Unfortunately taxon exclusion hobbled this study. The authors included no turtles and no pre-pareiasaurs recovered in the LRT. The Yi and Liu outgroup taxa (Fig 2) are all basal to lepidosauriformes in the LRT – close to pareiasaurs, diadectids and bolosaurs.

Even so, it’s always great to see a newly described taxon.

Figure 1. Yinshanosaurus, a new, mid-sized pareiasaur with a narrow skull, is here shown to scale with related taxa in the LRT. DGS colors applied here. The occiput is shown as is and undistored. Green arrow points to genesis of the flared cheek bones in this clade emphasized in non-turtle ancestor pareiasaurs. ” data-image-caption=”

” data-medium-file=”https://pterosaurheresies.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/07/yinshanosaurus.skull_.compared-1.jpg?w=167″ data-large-file=”https://pterosaurheresies.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/07/yinshanosaurus.skull_.compared-1.jpg?w=569″ class=”size-full wp-image-93475″ src=”https://pterosaurheresies.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/07/yinshanosaurus.skull_.compared-1.jpg” alt=”Figure 1. Yinshanosaurus, a new, mid-sized pareiasaur with a narrow skull, is here shown to scale with related taxa in the LRT. DGS colors applied here. The occiput is shown as is and undistored. Green arrow points to genesis of the flared cheek bones in this clade emphasized in non-turtle ancestor pareiasaurs.” width=”584″ height=”1052″ srcset=”https://pterosaurheresies.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/07/yinshanosaurus.skull_.compared-1.jpg?w=584&h=1052 584w, https://pterosaurheresies.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/07/yinshanosaurus.skull_.compared-1.jpg?w=83&h=150 83w, https://pterosaurheresies.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/07/yinshanosaurus.skull_.compared-1.jpg?w=167&h=300 167w, https://pterosaurheresies.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/07/yinshanosaurus.skull_.compared-1.jpg 588w” sizes=”(max-width: 584px) 100vw, 584px” />

When added to
the large reptile tree (LRT, 2338 taxa), which includes many more taxa, Yinshanosaurus nestes between the Sclerosaurus (Fig 1) clade (including softshell turtles) and the Bunostegos (Fig 1) clade (including Elginia and Ninjemys, a horned hardshell turtle, Fig 1).

Phylogenetic miniaturization (Fig 1) helped create turtles, and many other novel clades in the LRT. It’s a fascinating hypothesis that keeps popping up.

Flared cheekbones (principally quadratojugals)
are common among pareiasaurs not in the turtle lineage. Flared cheekbones tentatively appear in this turtle line (Fig 1) then disappear in derived turtles.

Lacking turtles in their taxon list, Yi and Liu missed out on reporting this slightly more interesting hypothesis of interrelationships.

Lacking pre-pareiasaurs, like Stephanospondylus (Fig 1), likewise hobbled this report.

Figure 2. Cladogram from Yi and Liu 2024 showing their taxon list and their placement of Yinshanosaurus within their Pareiasauria. ” data-image-caption=”

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. Too few taxa mar this cladogram. These outgroup taxa (in gray) nest in the LRT basal to Lepidosauriformes.

This appears to be a novel hypothesis of interrelationships.
If not, please provide a citation so I can promote it here. No other current ‘origin of turtles’ hypotheses include taxa recovered by the LRT, which minimizes taxon exclusion. All other competing turtle outgroup taxa have been tested in the LRT and recovered elsewhere in the LRT.

The comments attending this video are funny, sad, ill-informed and generally reflective of the attitude of Academia filtering down to the minions with pseudonyms. Discoveries always go through this dark phase.

References
Peters D 2016. The dual origin of turtles. ResearchGate.net
Yi J and Jun 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

The dual origin of turtles to scale

Source: https://pterosaurheresies.wordpress.com/2025/07/02/yinshanosaurus-new-pareiasaur-here-basal-to-hardshell-turtles/

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