NEW PAGES AND UPDATES: MARCH 2023

Friday 31st March 2023

UPDATE: TYLOPODA

Added some pictures. No llamas in pyjamas though.

Monday 20th March 2023

METASUCHIA

The crocodylomorphs underwent significant Mesozoic radiation into a number of niches, before surviving to the present day as aquatic top predators - crocodiles, alligators and their toothy relations.

Sunday 19th March 2023

PTERODACTYLOIDEA

This page covers the later evolution of the pterosaurs, and includes such iconic forms as the enormous azdarchids and the long-well-known Pterodactylus and Pteranodon.

Sunday 19th March 2023

PTEROSAURIA

The tetrapods first take flight in the form of the earliest pterosaurs, whose lineages are covered on this page, including the likes of the iconic rhamphorhynchoids.

Sunday 19th March 2023

CAENOPHIDIA

The vast majority of snakes belong to this clade. The caenophidians include a variety of slithering critters you wouldn't wish to meet in a dark alleyway, from vipers and asps to the mighty cobras. Also included are more benign forms of serpent.

Sunday 19th March 2023

PYTHONOMORPHA

The early history of the snake lineage is traced from the Cretaceous sea monsters through to the relatively recent Titanoboa and its currently-living relatives. Who'd have thought that the mighty mosasaurs were relatives of our limbless friends?

Sunday 19th March 2023

TOXICOFERA

Tired of being seen as scaly little critters with cold blood and little in the way of brains, some squamates develop a sting in the tooth - literally, in the form of venom. This page features various dragons and monsters, in addition to iguanas and chamaeleons.

Sunday 19th March 2023

AUTARCHOGLOSSA

This page covers the skinks and related lizards of the clade Laterata. Plenty of scaly things basking in the sun flicking out their tongues and that sort of stuff. Lizardy things. You know.

Friday 17th March 2023

SQUAMATA

This page traces the earliest members of the squamate lineage - represented today by lizards and snakes - and includes some modern forms, such as the numerous genera of geckos.

Thursday 16th March 2023

CROCODYLOMORPHA

This branch of the Archosaurs, which leads eventually to today's crocodilians, includes such fearsome early groups as the sea-going Thalattosuchids.

Thursday 16th March 2023

ARCHOSAURIFORMES

This exciting lineage was subject to significant evolutionary radiation during the Triassic, with offshoots including the crocodilians, early master of the air the pterosaurs, and dinosaurs with their feathery descendants.

Wednesday 15th March 2023

TESTUDINES

They say I might as well face the truth, that turtles, tortoises and terrapins belong to this clade, which is related (most likely) to today's crocodiles and birds in something of a rogue's gallery of creatures.

Monday 13th March 2023, Tuesday 14th March 2023

ARCHELOSAURIA

The Archelosauria are a clade of diapsids related to the earliest lizard ancestors, which quickly diverged into the groups leading to turtles on the one hand and the archosaurs on the other.

Saturday 4th March 2023

UPDATE: PERISSODACTYLA

Images added for the hyopsodontids, anthracobunids, desmostylians and chalicotheres.

Also duly updated the phylogeny with the same images.

Friday 3rd March 2023

UPDATE: PHYLOGENY: SYNAPSIDS AND MAMMALS

Added images and links to Mesaxonia, Litopterna and a picture of Hyposodus paulus.

Friday 3rd March 2023

UPDATE: MESAXONIA

Page supercharged with pictures & stuff.

Friday 3rd March 2023

LITOPTERNA

The Litopterna are one of the major groups of South American Native Ungulates (SANUs), relatives of the perissodactyls who dominated various niches on the continent before the arrival of the "gringos."

Thursday 2nd March 2023, Friday 3rd March 2023

UPDATE: PHYLOGENY: SYNAPSIDS AND MAMMALS

Added images and links to Ceratomorpha (and Hippomorpha to an extent).

Wednesday 1st March 2023

UPDATE: CERATOMORPHA

Added pictures.