A phylogenetic perspective on locomotory strategies in early amniotes1

Abstract

Past approaches to understanding the evolution of locomotory strategies among Paleozoic amniotes (“primitive reptiles” of previous parlance) have been influenced by preservational bias: early occurrences of some amniote taxa were used to polarize the acquisition or development of locomotory structures among the earliest amniotes. Using a phylogeny representing the current consensus in the literature, we investigate the major locomotory strategies that have been posited for Paleozoic amniotes (basal synapsids on one hand and early reptiles on the other) by optimizing the major locomotory styles identified for these taxa onto the consensus tree, in order to present an overview of the pattern of evolution of locomotory strategies inherited and adopted by various amniote lineages. © 2001 Society for Integrative and Comparative Biology.