Cool video about Plesiosaur Evolution

[Stegotyranno420]

Found this video by Moth Light Media. Hope the plesiosaurus fans will enjoy this. And @dinotoyforum , how accurate is this video
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CF_-9_JatlI

[DinoToyForum]

Link?

[Stegotyranno420]

Link?

hope it works now

[DinoToyForum]

Hi, that's generally well researched, but a few bones to pick.
The photograph used to illustrate a pistosaur is actually a plesiosaurian (Thalassiodracon), taken from Dave Peter's pseudoscience 'Reptile Evolution' site (so the colour-coding of pectoral girdle bones is wrong). Tut tut.
Sauropterygians are not closely related to turtles, at least no more closely than other reptile groups.
And he has a habit of pronouncing names with extra syllables Ee-laz-uh-mo-sore-uss. Crip-toh-kuh-ligh-duss. It made me smile!

[Halichoeres]

Sauropterygians are not closely related to turtles, at least no more closely than other reptile groups.

Oh, that's interesting. I seem to remember analyses such as the one that accompanied the publication of Pappochelys recovering sauropterygians as part of the turtle stem-group. But maybe they didn't actually have the taxon sampling to distinguish between that and other hypotheses.

[DinoToyForum]

Sauropterygians are not closely related to turtles, at least no more closely than other reptile groups.

Oh, that's interesting. I seem to remember analyses such as the one that accompanied the publication of Pappochelys recovering sauropterygians as part of the turtle stem-group. But maybe they didn't actually have the taxon sampling to distinguish between that and other hypotheses.

Exactly. If certain groups are omitted from a cladistic analysis then the resulting cladograms shouldn't be taken at face value. I think the Pappochelys study omitted several other key aquatic reptile taxa: ichthyopterygians, hupehsuchians, thalattosaurs, helveticosaurids, to name a few. Correct me if I'm wrong (I might be!)

I'm not saying a clade consisting of sauropterygians and chelonians to the exclusion of all other reptiles (i.e. Pantestudines) is out of the question, I'm just sceptical. And to be fair to the video above they don't present it as fact.

[Halichoeres]

Sauropterygians are not closely related to turtles, at least no more closely than other reptile groups.

Oh, that's interesting. I seem to remember analyses such as the one that accompanied the publication of Pappochelys recovering sauropterygians as part of the turtle stem-group. But maybe they didn't actually have the taxon sampling to distinguish between that and other hypotheses.

Exactly. If certain groups are omitted from a cladistic analysis then the resulting cladograms shouldn't be taken at face value. I think the Pappochelys study omitted several other key aquatic reptile taxa: ichthyopterygians, hupehsuchians, thalattosaurs, helveticosaurids, to name a few. Correct me if I'm wrong (I might be!)

I'm not saying a clade consisting of sauropterygians and chelonians to the exclusion of all other reptiles (i.e. Pantestudines) is out of the question, I'm just sceptical. And to be fair to the video above they don't present it as fact.

Yeah, that makes sense. I remember thalattosaurs being conspicuously absent, and Robin O'Keefe told me once he suspects they are close to the origin of turtles.