Figure 15. Baraminic distance correlation (BDC) results for the Proterosuchidae and Erythrosuchidae subset dataset using: A) Pearson correlation coefficient and B) Spearman correlation coefficient. Black squares indicate significant positive correlation, whereas open circles indicate significant negative correlation. Figure 16. 3D multidimensional scaling (MDS) results for the Proterosuchidae and Erythrosuchidae subset dataset in two views: A and B. Erythrosuchids are represented by green and proterosuchids by purple. (Figures 30 and 31). At three groups (average silhouette width: 0.49 (PAM); 0.49 (FANNY)), Ticinosuchus, Parringtonia, and Nundasuchus are grouped with the gracilisuchids, with Ticinosuchus and Parringtonia possessing silhouette values less than 0.2. Interestingly, Nundasuchus has a silhouette value higher than two gracilisuchids (~0.5). Changing PAM to four groups (average silhouette width = 0.47) simply separates out Parringtonia as its own group. However, changing FANNY to four groups (average silhouette width = 0.41) causes Nundasuchus and Ticinosuchus to group together and Parringtonia to group with the gracilisuchids making a group that has very low silhouette values (<0.3) with the gracilisuchid Turfanosuchus possessing a negative silhouette value. J. Paracrocodylomorpha The Pearson and Spearman BDC plots (Figure 32) for the Paracrocodylomorpha subset analysis show Lotosaurus separate from all other taxa by either negative correlation or no correlation. The poposauroids Arizonasaurus, Xilousuchus, and Qianosuchus share positive correlation with each other and not with any other taxon in the Spearman BDC (Figure 32B), although in the Pearson BDC Qianosuchus shares positive correlation with Ticinosuchus and Decuriasuchus (Figure 32A). The remaining taxa form a block of positive correlation with more positive correlation connections in the Pearson BDC than the Spearman BDC. The MDS results for this subset (Figure 33) agree with the BDC plots in the position of Lotosaurus: far from everything. The three other poposauroid taxa form a cluster separate from the remaining paracrocodylomorphs. PAM results (Figure 34) were analyzed with two, three, and four groups (average silhouette widths: 0.29, 0.26, 0.26, respectively). Two groups clustered Lotosaurus, Arizonasaurus, and Xilousuchus together, although Xilousuchus had a negative silhouette value. The rest of the taxa fell into the other cluster with Qianosuchus possessing a silhouette value of less than 0.2. Three groups seemed to agree well with the BDC results: Lotosaurus by itself, the three other poposauroids, and the rest of the paracrocodylomorphs. Four groups resulted in the same pattern except that Prestosuchus nyassicus was pulled out of the larger group, surprisingly separated from Prestosuchus chiniquensis. We also analyzed the dataset with FANNY (Figure 35) at two, three, and four groups (average silhouette widths: 0.26, 0.13, 0.23, respectively). Two groups put all of the poposauroids (including Lotosaurus) together, although Qianosuchus had a negative silhouette value. Strangely, three groups retained this poposauroid group and instead split up the remaining taxa into two groups: 1) Prestosuchus chiniquensis + Batrachotomus + Decuriasuchus and 2) Prestosuchus nyassicus + Mandasuchus + Ticinosuchus. Both Mandasuchus and Ticinosuchus had negative silhouette values. It was only at four groups that Lotosaurus finally separated out as its own group. The rest of the groups remained the same, although the silhouette values for the poposauroid group increased substantially. K. Avemetatarsalia The BDC results for the Avemetatarsalia subset analysis for both Pearson and Spearman correlations showed two groups of positive correlation: Pterosauromorpha and Dinosauromorpha + Aphanosauria (Figure 36). The Spearman results revealed no instances of shared positive correlation between the two blocks, whereas the Pearson BDC shows the pterosaurs Preondactylus and Cacibupteryx sharing positive correlation with several dinosaur taxa. Additionally, the lagerpetids Lagerpeton and Ixalerpeton are only positively correlated with one pterosaur (Seazzadactylus), whereas the lagerpetid Dromomeron shares positive correlation with both Lagerpeton and MCLAIN, CLAUSEN, PEREZ, BEEBE, AND AHTEN Archosauromorph Baraminology 2023 ICC 503
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