Re: Feduccia's delusion

["David Marjanovic" <david.marjanovic@gmx.at>]

> > I intended to use Sauria (Greek for "lizards") for the stem group that
> > includes Lacertilia (Latin for "lizards") and all animals more closely
> > related to Lacertilia  (modern, i.e., crown-group, lizards) than to
snakes
> > (Serpentes: Latin for snakes).

Crown-group lizards are, of course, paraphyletic, as the monitors/goannas
are more closely related to snakes than to *Lacerta*, geckos, skinks etc.
etc..

> In the classifications I've seen, _Sauria_ is the diapsid crown group. The
> stem-based clade you refer to is _Lepidosauromorpha_.
>
> > Ophidia (Greek for "snakes") would be the complementary stem group
> > comprising Serpentes and all animals more closely related to modern
> > snakes than to modern lizards.
>
> Sounds good to me.

This has already happened. Ophidia has got a stem-based definition (don't
know it) and includes *Pachyrhachis* and Serpentes.