The Proceedings of the Ninth International Conference on Creationism (2023)

Figure 12. 3D multidimensional scaling (MDS) results for the Rhynchosauria subset dataset: A) MDS plot at 167 characters including problematic taxa. B) MDS plot at 429 characters excluding problematic taxa. Colors: Red - outgroup; green - “basal” rhynchosaurs; purple - Noteosuchus; blue - Hyperodapedontinae; light blue - non-hyperodapedontine Rhynchosauridae. tained the three erpetosuchid taxa, Erpetosuchus granti, Pagosvenator candelariensis, and Tarjadia ruthae, which were positively correlated with the outgroup taxa. Vancleavea campi positively correlated with Litorosuchus somnii (as well as the aforementioned Proterochampsa barrionuevoi). The final two doswelliids did not positively correlate with any other taxa in the analysis, although Doswellia kaltenbachi did negatively correlate with the outgroup taxa. Vancleavea and Litorosuchus also shared negative correlation with the erpetosuchids. The MDS results including the outgroup taxa (Figure 20A) show similar clustering patterns to the BDC results. The outgroup taxa, which are colored pink, are relatively distinct from the other species. However, Litorosuchus + Vancleavea cluster together (purple) with an even farther distance from the rest of the proterochampsians. The erpetosuchids (in yellow) cluster together. Doswellia kaltenbachi (red) and Jaxtasuchus salomoni (black) do not cluster together and neither clusters with any of the other species. Each of these four previous clusters are approximately equal distances away from the proterochampsids (blue). The PAM results (Figure 21A) group best when given groups of five with an average silhouette width of 0.32. Vancleavea (purple) is by itself, so it has a width of 0.0. Pr. nodosa + Pr. barrionuevoi group with Doswellia + Jaxtasuchus (green) and have a very small average silhouette width of 0.08, with Pr. barrionuevoi possessing a negative silhouette width. The outgroup taxa group with Litorosuchus (yellow) and have an average width of 0.21, although Litorosuchus has a value of nearly 0. The erpetosuchids (blue) have the highest average silhouette width at 0.62, with the proterochampsids (red) as next highest having an average width of 0.46. The FANNY results (Figure 22A) also have the highest silhouette value (0.36) at five groups. Pr. nodosa + Pr. barrionuevoi group together with Vancleavea (purple). Because Vancleavea has little similarity to the other two taxa, the average silhouette width is at a low at 0.11. The outgroup and Litorosuchus (yellow) have an average silhouette width of 0.24. Doswelliia + Jaxtasuchus (green) have the next lowest width at 0.33. The proterochampsids (red) have a silhouette width of 0.44. The group with the highest average silhouette width are again the erpetosuchids (blue) with a width of 0.66. Removing the outgroup and running the data through the same process again did not change much about the results. Jaxtasuchus, Litorosuchus, Vancleavea, and Doswelliia all showed no correlation with any other proterochampsian species in the Pearson BDC (Figure 19C). There was negative correlation between Vancleavea and a few of the other species and negative correlation between Doswelliia and the proterochampsid Tropidosuchus. Again, there were fewer instances of positive correlation between species within the Proterochampsidae block in Pearson versus Spearman (Figure 19D). The Spearman BDC recovered positive correlation between Vancleavea + Litorosuchus, same as when the outgroup was present. The Erpetosuchidae were a clear block of positive correlation in both Pearson and Spearman BDC plots. The MDS results (Figure 20B) without the outgroup taxa were also similar to the plot with the outgroup. The proterochampsids clustered together, as did the erpetosuchids. The same four that were not showing correlation in the Pearson BDC were not clustering with any other species in the MDS and were instead standing almost equally separate from the protereochampsids. These results from PAM (Figure 21B) are generally similar to the PAM results that included outgroup taxa (Figure 21A), but the average silhouette size is larger at 0.39. However, there are some notable differences. Vancleavea and Litorosuchus are grouped together (although with an average silhouette value of 0.08), and the two problematic proterochampsids in PAM/FANNY (Pr. barrionuevoi and Pr. nodosa) now form their own group together with an average silhouette value of 0.70. Once the outgroup is removed and the resulting dataset is put into FANNY (with a suggestion of four groups), the results are essentially the same (Figure 22B). The average silhouette width is 0.34. Vancleavea, Litorosuchus, and the two Proterochampsa species are groupted together with an average silhouette value of 0.02. G. Phytosauria The Pearson BDC results for the Phytosauria subset (Figure 23A) show a large block of positive correlation containing all of the paraMCLAIN, CLAUSEN, PEREZ, BEEBE, AND AHTEN Archosauromorph Baraminology 2023 ICC 500

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