New phylogeny of turtles and the evolution of marine clades

[Halichoeres]

This study uses a bunch of CT scans to extract more character data from specimens, and produces a new phylogenetic hypothesis suggesting multiple evolutions of marine habit in stem-turtles. I'll have access through my institution in about a month but in the meantime I'll share this screencapped CT scan. My guess is they didn't sample enough diapsid groups to find the sister group of turtles, but if they did, that's what I'm most interested in.



Paywall, but I'm happy to share the pdf once I have access (there's an embargo on online articles released before the print journal): https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdf/10.1111/pala.12384

[Halichoeres]

A year late, but this paper now seems to be open access. Here's one of the more salient results: 4 major marine turtle clades, including the one that contains both giants like Archelon and modern sea turtles.



Sadly, no sampling of potential sister groups among the sauropsids. Beyond the purview of this project, I guess.