Figure 13. Partitions around medoids (PAM) analysis of the Rhynchosauria subset dataset: A) PAM Plot at four groups including problematic taxa, 4 groups and B) PAM Plot at four groups excluding problematic taxa. suchids (true phytosaurs). The possible “basal” phytosaur Diandongosuchus fuyuanensis does not correlate with any other taxa in the analysis. The two outgroup taxa do not share any correlation with each other, and have many examples of shared negative correlation with the parasuchids. Spearman BDC results for the Phytosauria subset (Figure 23B) reveal weaker positive correlations within Parasuchidae. There are two main blocks of positive correlation: “basal” phytosaurs (Wannia, Parasuchus hislopi, Parasuchus (Paleorhinus) angustifrons, Ebrachosuchus neukami, and Paleorhinus sawini) and “more derived” phytosaurs (Smilosuchus, Redondasaurus, Machaeroprosopus pristinus, Angistorhinus talainti, Nicrosaurus kapffi, and Mystriosuchus planirostris). Paleorhinus sawini positively correlates with Nicrosaurus and Angistorhinus, linking the two blocks of positive correlation. Additionally, Wannia positively correlates with Diandongosuchus, which is itself positively correlated with the outgroup taxa. The 3D MDS results (Figure 24) shows similar results. There is a gap in character space between Lotosaurus adentus, Prestosuchus chiniquensis, and Diandongosuchus (shown in red) and the tightly clustered parasuchids (shown in green). The parasuchid cluster is made of three smaller clusters: 1) Wannia, Par. angustifrons, Par. hislopi, Ebrachosuchus, and Pal. sawini. 2) Angistorhinus, Nicrosaurus, and Smilosuchus; and 3) Machaeroprosopus, Redondasaurus, and Mystriosuchus. Two- and three-group models were used in the PAM analysis (FigMCLAIN, CLAUSEN, PEREZ, BEEBE, AND AHTEN Archosauromorph Baraminology 2023 ICC 501
RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy MTM4ODY=