During the course of amniote evolution, numerous taxa secondarily adapted to an aquatic
life. It appears that many of these taxa primitively display “pachyostosis,” an osseous …

We assembled a dataset of 192 carefully selected species—51 extinct and 141 extant—and
976 apomorphies distributed among 610 phenotypic characters to investigate the phylogeny …

Bone mass increase (BMI; ie osteosclerosis with possible additional pachyostosis) is
characteristically displayed by many Late Cretaceous squamates that adapted to shallow …

Squamates (lizards, snakes, and their kin such as amphisbaenians, or “worm lizards”)
represent the world's most diverse clade of terrestrial vertebrates with∼ 11,000 described …

Systematists disagree whether data from fossils should be included in parsimony analyses.
In a handful of well-documented cases, the addition of fossil data radically overturns a …

This book presents perspectives on the past and present state of the understanding of snake
origins. It reviews and critiques data and ideas from paleontology and neontology …

Abstract During the Cenomanian-Turonian interval, marine squamates display a spectacular
radiation in particular on the margins of the Mediterranean Tethys and, to a lesser extent, in …

Mosasauroid squamates represented the apex predators within the Late Cretaceous marine
and occasionally also freshwater ecosystems. Proper understanding of the origin of their …

A new marine lizard showing exceptional soft tissue preservation was found in Late
Cretaceous deposits of the Apulian Platform (Puglia, Italy). Primitivus manduriensis gen. et …

The exquisite transitional fossil Tetrapodophis–described as a stem-snake with four small
legs from the Lower Cretaceous of Brazil–has been widely considered a burrowing animal …