Sauria is the

clade A clade (), also known as a monophyletic group or natural group, is a group of organisms that are monophyletic – that is, composed of a common ancestor and all its lineal descendants – on a phylogenetic tree. Rather than the English term, ...

containing the

most recent common ancestor In biology and genetic genealogy, the most recent common ancestor (MRCA), also known as the last common ancestor (LCA) or concestor, of a set of organisms is the most recent individual from which all the organisms of the set are descended. The ...

archosaur Archosauria () is a clade of diapsids, with birds and crocodilians as the only living representatives. Archosaurs are broadly classified as reptiles, in the cladistic sense of the term which includes birds. Extinct archosaurs include non-avian d ...

s (such as

crocodilians Crocodilia (or Crocodylia, both ) is an order of mostly large, predatory, semiaquatic reptiles, known as crocodilians. They first appeared 95 million years ago in the Late Cretaceous period (Cenomanian stage) and are the closest living ...

dinosaurs Dinosaurs are a diverse group of reptiles of the clade Dinosauria. They first appeared during the Triassic period, between 243 and 233.23 million years ago (mya), although the exact origin and timing of the evolution of dinosaurs is t ...

, etc.) and

lepidosaurs The Lepidosauria (, from Greek meaning ''scaled lizards'') is a subclass or superorder of reptiles, containing the orders Squamata and Rhynchocephalia. Squamata includes snakes, lizards, and amphisbaenians. Squamata contains over 9,000 species ...

( lizards and kin), and all its descendants. Since most molecular phylogenies recover turtles as more closely related to archosaurs than to lepidosaurs as part of

Archelosauria Archelosauria is a clade grouping turtles and archosaurs (birds and crocodilians) and their fossil relatives, to the exclusion of lepidosaurs (the clade containing lizards, snakes and the tuatara). The majority of phylogenetic analyses based on m ...

, Sauria can be considered the

crown group In phylogenetics, the crown group or crown assemblage is a collection of species composed of the living representatives of the collection, the most recent common ancestor of the collection, and all descendants of the most recent common ancestor. ...

diapsid Diapsids ("two arches") are a clade of sauropsids, distinguished from more primitive eureptiles by the presence of two holes, known as temporal fenestrae, in each side of their skulls. The group first appeared about three hundred million years ago ...

s, or

reptile Reptiles, as most commonly defined are the animals in the class Reptilia ( ), a paraphyletic grouping comprising all sauropsids except birds. Living reptiles comprise turtles, crocodilians, squamates (lizards and snakes) and rhynchocephalians ( ...

s in general. Depending on the systematics, Sauria includes all modern reptiles or most of them (including

bird Birds are a group of warm-blooded vertebrates constituting the class Aves (), characterised by feathers, toothless beaked jaws, the laying of hard-shelled eggs, a high metabolic rate, a four-chambered heart, and a strong yet lightweigh ...

s, a type of archosaur) as well as various extinct groups. Sauria lies within the larger total group

Sauropsida Sauropsida ("lizard faces") is a clade of amniotes, broadly equivalent to the class Reptilia. Sauropsida is the sister taxon to Synapsida, the other clade of amniotes which includes mammals as its only modern representatives. Although early syna ...

, which also contains various stem-reptiles which are more closely related to reptiles than to mammals. Prior to its modern usage, "Sauria" was used as a name for the suborder occupied by

lizard Lizards are a widespread group of squamate reptiles, with over 7,000 species, ranging across all continents except Antarctica, as well as most oceanic island chains. The group is paraphyletic since it excludes the snakes and Amphisbaenia alt ...

s, which before 1800 were considered crocodilians.

Systematics

Recent genomic studiesCrawford, Nicholas G., et al. "More than 1000 ultraconserved elements provide evidence that turtles are the sister group of archosaurs." Biology letters 8.5 (2012): 783-786. and comprehensive studies in the fossil record suggest that

turtle Turtles are an order of reptiles known as Testudines, characterized by a special shell developed mainly from their ribs. Modern turtles are divided into two major groups, the Pleurodira (side necked turtles) and Cryptodira (hidden necked tu ...

s are closely related to archosaurs, not to the pre-Saurian

parareptile Parareptilia ("at the side of reptiles") is a subclass or clade of basal sauropsids (reptiles), typically considered the sister taxon to Eureptilia (the group that likely contains all living reptiles and birds). Parareptiles first arose near the ...

s as previously thought. In cladistic analysis of 2018,

Pantestudines Pantestudines or Pan-Testudines is the group of all reptiles more closely related to turtles than to any other living animal. It includes both modern turtles (crown group turtles, also known as Testudines) and all of their extinct relatives (also ...

(turtles and close relatives) were placed within Diapsida but outside of Sauria.

Synapomorphies

The synapomorphies or characters that unite the clade Sauria also help them be distinguished from stem-saurians in

Diapsida Diapsids ("two arches") are a clade of sauropsids, distinguished from more primitive eureptiles by the presence of two holes, known as temporal fenestrae, in each side of their skulls. The group first appeared about three hundred million years ago ...

or stem-reptiles in clade

in the following categories based on the following regions of the body.Pough, F. H., Janis, C. M., & Heiser, J. B. (2005). Vertebrate life. Pearson/Prentice Hall.Laurin, Michel and Jacques A. Gauthier. 2011. Autapomorphies of Diapsid Clades. Version 20 April 2011. http://tolweb.org/accessory/Autapomorphies_of_Diapsid_Clades?acc_id=465 in The Tree of Life Web Project, http://tolweb.org/ *Cephalad Region **Dorsal origin of temporal musculature **Loss of caniniform region in maxillary tooth row **External nares close to the midline **Postparietal absent **Squamosal mainly restricted to top of skull **The occipital flange of the squamosal is little exposed on the occiput **Anterior process of squamosal narrow **Quadrate exposed laterally **Unossified dorsal process of stapes **Stapes slender *Trunk Region **Sacral ribs oriented laterally **Ontogenetic fusion of caudal ribs **Trunk ribs mostly single headed *Pectoral Region **Cleithrum absent *Pelvic Region **Modified ilium *Limb Region **Tubular bone lost **Entepicondylar foramen absent **Radius as long as ulna **Small proximal carpals and tarsal **Fifth distal tarsal absent **Short and stout fifth or hooked metatarsal **Perforating foramen of manus lost However, some of these characters might be lost or modified in several lineages, particularly among birds and turtles; it is best to see these characters as the ancestral features that were present in the ancestral saurian.

Phylogeny

The cladogram shown below follows the most likely result found by an analysis of turtle relationships using both fossil and genetic evidence by M.S. Lee, in 2013. This study found ''

Eunotosaurus ''Eunotosaurus'' (''Latin'': Stout-backed lizard) is an extinct genus of amniote, possibly a close relative of turtles. ''Eunotosaurus'' lived in the late Middle Permian (Capitanian stage) and fossils can be found in the Karoo Supergroup of Sout ...

'', usually regarded as a turtle relative, to be only very distantly related to turtles in the clade

Parareptilia Parareptilia ("at the side of reptiles") is a subclass or clade of basal sauropsids (reptiles), typically considered the sister taxon to Eureptilia (the group that likely contains all living reptiles and birds). Parareptiles first arose near the ...

. The cladogram below follows the most likely result found by another analysis of turtle relationships, this one using only fossil evidence, published by Rainer Schoch and Hans-Dieter Sues in 2015. This study found ''Eunotosaurus'' to be an actual early stem-turtle, though other versions of the analysis found weak support for it as a parareptile. The cladogram below follows the analysis of Li ''et al''. (2018). It places turtles within Diapsida but outside of Sauria (the Lepidosauromorpha + Archosauromorpha clade).

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q2254408 Reptile taxonomy Tetrapod unranked clades Permian reptiles Extant Permian first appearances Guadalupian first appearances