ArticleScientific reports2020
Effects of phylogenetic uncertainty on fossil identification illustrated by a new and enigmatic Eocene iguanian.
Article in Scientific reports, 2020. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 4 papers.
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4 citing papers in PubMed.
- First Eocene lizard (Squamata) from Balkanatolia documents overwater dispersal of Paleogene pleurodontan iguanians.Scientific reports · 2026Article
- A Palaeogene stem crotaphytid (Royal Society open science · 2024Article
- A new extinct species of alligator lizard (Squamata: Elgaria) and an expanded perspective on the osteology and phylogeny of Gerrhonotinae.BMC ecology and evolution · 2021Article
- The Making of Calibration Sausage Exemplified by Recalibrating the Transcriptomic Timetree of Jawed Vertebrates.Frontiers in genetics · 2021Article
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1 author.
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Abstract
Fossil identifications made in a phylogenetic framework are beholden to specific tree hypotheses. Without phylogenetic consensus, the systematic provenance of any given fossil can be volatile. Paleobiogeographic and divergence time hypotheses are contingent on the accurate systematic placement of fossils. Thus, fossil diagnoses should consider multiple topologies when phylogenetic resolution or clear apomorphies are lacking. However, such analyses are infrequently performed. Pleurodonta (Squamata: Iguania) is an ancient and frequently-studied lizard clade for which phylogenetic resolution is notoriously elusive. I describe a skull fossil of a new pleurodontan lizard taxon from the Eocene deposits of the Willwood Formation, Wyoming, and use the new taxon as a case-study to explore the effects of phylogenetic uncertainty on fossil identification. The relationships of the new taxon differ considerably among analyses, and resulting interpretations are correspondingly disparate. These results illustrate generalizable and severe issues with fossil interpretations made without consideration of alternative phylogenetic hypotheses.
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