Online Supplementary Material
Material used to score Eunotosaurus africanus in phylogenetic analyses
Material Examined:
BMNH R 1968 (holotype): seven articulated vertebrae and their ribs; damaged pubis (?) and ilium; right femur, proximal ends of right tibia and fibula.
BMNH R 4949: Ten articulated vertebrae and their ribs; eroded coracoid region; isolated podial elements.
BMNH R 4054: Eight articulated vertebrae and their ribs, impressions of the scapula and ilium.
BMNH R 49423: eroded remains of five articulated vertebrae and their ribs, damagaed pectoral girdle, interclavicle, and portions of both humeri.
BMNH R 49424: eroded skull with lower jaw, seven articulated vertebrae and their ribs, portions of the scapula, both humeri and pubes.
USNM 23099: series of three vertebrae and five pairs of ribs, plus four other displaced vertebrae; right humerus, right ilium, damaged left pelvis and right (?) scapula.
Specimen Illustrations (no reconstructions were used to score characters):
SAM 4328: natural mould of nine articulated vertebrae and their ribs, of right half of pelvic girdle, and of parts of left femur (specimen illustration of pelvic girdle in Cox (1969)).
BPI 3514:Five articulated vertebrae and their ribs, plus other disarticulated, poorly preserved elements including an interclavicle (specimen illustration of interclavicle in Cox (1969))
AM 5999:mould of the majority of the postcranial skeleton. Portions of the manus, pes, and tail preserved (specimen illustration and stereophotographs in Gow and de Klerk (1997) and Modesto (2000)).
M 777:articulated skull, neck, and anterior six dorsal vertebrae with corresponding ribs (photographs in Keyser and Gow (1981); specimen illustration of the skull and skeleton in Gow (1997))
QR3299: articulated skull (specimen illustration in Gow (1997))
Unnumbered specimen from the Council for the Geosciences: articulated dorsal vertebrae and ribs with portions of a disarticulated skull, shoulder girdle elements, and pelvis (specimen illustration in Gow (1997))
GM 71: six and a half articulated vertebrae with articulated, but broken ribs (specimen illustration in Gow (1997))
Nomenclature
We follow Joyce et al. (2004) in using the branch-based nomen Pan-Testudines for the reptilian clade including crown turtles plus their extinct stem (i.e., for the “total group” of Testudines sensu Joyce et al.). We follow Tsuji and Müller (2009) in regarding the nomen Parareptilia (and its counterpart Eureptilia) as being conceptualized largely on the basis of Palaeozoic species, without regard to amniote crown clades (Testudines and Diapsida, respectively). Indeed, as Tsuji and Muller (2009) argued: “…the hypothesis of a turtle-parareptile relationship is no longer considered valid among the vast majority of evolutionary biologists, despite its somewhat anachronistic popularity in the palaeontological community.” Should that outlook prevail, Parareptilia would still apply to the collection of species Tsuji and Muller (2009) referred to by that nomen. If, however, “parareptiles” are stem turtles, we prefer to communicate that information in a more cognitively efficient manner, viz., by simply attaching the prefix Pan- (= all: Greek) to the more familiar nomen Testudines (which has ~7,100 hits in Google Scholar, while Parareptilia has only ~340).
Online References:
1S: Cox, C. B. 1969. The problematic Permian reptile Eunotosaurus. Bull. Brit. Mus. (Nat. Hist.) 18, 165-196.
2S: Gow, C. E. 1997. A reassessment of Eunotosaurus africanus Seeley (Amniota: Parareptilia). Palaeontol. Afr. 34, 33-42.
3S: Gow, C. E. & de Klerk, B. 1997. First record of Eunotosaur (Amniota: Parareptilia) from the Eastern Cape. Palaeonto. Afr. 34, 27-31.
4S: Joyce, W. G., Parham, J. F. & Gauthier, J. A. 2004 Developing a protocol for the conversion of rank-based taxon names to phylogenetically defined clade names, as exemplified by turtles. J. Paleontol. 78, 989–1013. (doi:10.1666/0022-3360(2004)078!0989:DAPFTCO 2.0.CO;2)
5S: Keyser, A. W. & Gow, C. E 1981. First complete skull of the Permian reptile Eunotosaurus africanus Seeley. S. Afr. J. Sci. 77, 417-420.
6S: Li, C., Wu, X.-C., Rieppel, O., Wang, L.-T., & Zhao, L.-J. 2009. Ancestral turtle from the late Triassic of southwestern China. Nature 456, 497–501.
7S: Modesto, S. P. 2000. Eunotosaurus africanus and the Gondwanan ancestry of anapsid reptiles. Palaeontol. Afr. 36, 15-20.
8S: Müller, J. & Tsuji, L. A. 2007. Impedance-matching hearing in Paleozoic reptiles: evidence of advanced sensory perception at an early stage of amniote evolution. PloS ONE 2, e889 (doi:10.1371/ journal.pone.0000889).
9S: Tsuji, L. A. & Müller, J. 2009. Assembling the history of the Parareptilia: phylogeny, diversification, and a new definition of the clade. Fossil Record 12, 71-81.
Additions to Li et al.’s (2008) character matrix (also see online matrix)
Scoring for additional taxa:
Eunotosaurus africanus 00000?0??010?0?0??2??0?0110000000?0110100100010000000100102?1?100??????0121?01?0020??0??00?11?1010000?1101000?1??00?101000000220????010?000101110001{01}?00010?110000000???0
Proganochelys quenstedti 0010010100100000202101000100?1000?11011101001100300201211020101111100?10021112103201001100011???1110011101100111000022101010022100101000010110111111110011101001200110101
Additional characters:
170. T-shaped ribs (costals): absent, ribs are circular or oval in cross section (0); present, ribs are distinctly T-shaped in cross section and are comprised of an endochondral rib portion and a metaplastically ossified dermal portion (1).
171. Dorsal ribs (costals) contact one another along most of their length: absent, ribs do not meet or lie on top of one another (0); present, metaplastic portion of dorsal ribs contact one another.
172. Number of dorsal vertebrae: more than ten (0); ten or fewer (1).
173. Length of dorsal vertebrae: length is less than two times the transverse width (0); length is more than two times the transverse width (1).
174. Dorsal trunk shape: trunk length much greater than trunk width (0); trunk length approximates trunk width (approximately 2/3 of the length) (1).
175. Distal overlap of sacral ribs : broad with narrow gap between the sacral ribs (0); narrow, with broad gaps between the distal ends of the sacral ribs (1).
176. Dermal skull tuberosities: absent (0); tuberosities present (1); tuberosities and pits present (2); honeycomb texture present (3).
Scoring for additional characters:
Seymouridae: 0000003
Diadectomorpha: 0000001
Caseidae: 0000000
Ophiacodontidae: 0000000
Edaphosauridae: 0000000
Sphenacodontidae: 0000000
Gorganopsia: 0000000
Cynodontia: 0000000
Captorhinidae: 0000003
Paleothyris: 0000000
Millerettidae: 0100011
Acleistorhinus: ??????1
Lanthanosuchidae: ??????2
Macroleter: 0000012
Bradysaurus: 0000012
Scutosaurus: 0000012
Anthodon: 0000012
Procolophon: 0000010
Owenetta: 0000010
Araeoscelidia: 0000000
Claudiosaurus: 0000000
Younginiformes: 0000000
Kuehneosauridae: 0000000
Rhynchocephalia: 0000000
Squamata: 0000000
Choristodera: 0000000
Rhynchosauria: 0000000
Prolacertiformes: 0000000
Trilophosaurus: 0000000
Archosauriformes: 0000000
Placodus: 0000100
Cyamodus: 0000100
Eosauropterygia: 0000000
Odontochelys: 1111111
Eunotosaurus: 1111111
Proganochelys: 1111101
Testudines: 1111100
Additions to Müller & Tsuji’s (2007) character matrix
Scoring for additional taxa:
Odontochelys
?0032??10????01211????1????02??0???????12???????2????00???????????????????10????????????111011?110002?11?002??01101?00100201111101???????111111??1??1?1101?010
Proganochelys
?0032?210120?012111011101?000??011?2010111101000211?10011002101?0201021111??210101110?01111011?110002111?1021100201100100211011201?001?11111111111021111001010