Taxon Index: A-C
- Acanthodiformes X: a long-lived group of very Osteichthyan-like acanthodians
- Acanthodii X: the other teleostomes, sister of Osteichthyes, with the skull based on large cartilaginous plates and with many fin spines
- Acanthomorpha: a big fish clade, including tunas, basses, flounders, cods, and billfishes among many others.
- Acanthostega X: the most basal well-known tetrapod
- Achoania X: the sister of crown group Sarcopterygii?
- Acipenseriformes: sturgeons, paddlefish & extinct relatives
- Acrocanthosaurus X: an Albian-Aptian theropod -- and contender for largest land predator of all time
- Acrochordoidea: wart snakes or file snakes
- Acrodonta: acrodont lizards, i.e. agamids, chamaeleons and that lot.
- Actinistia: the coelacanth group, odd lobe-finned fish with poorly known relationships
- Actinolepida X: a cosmopolitan placoderm group closely related to the phylolepidids
- Actinolepidoidei X: actinolepids + phylolepidids
- Actinopteri: all actinopterygians (ray-finned fish) except the very primitive Cladistia
- Actinopterygii: the ray-finned fish
- Adapiformes X: the extinct (Paleocene to Miocene) sister group of the lorises and lemurs
- Adelogyrinidae X: another strange and poorly-known Carboniferous lepospondyl group with a long trunk, but with limb girdles, orbits very far forward.
- Aegyptosaurus X: an Early Cretaceous African sauropod just basal to the Titanosauria
- Aepyornithiformes X: the elephant birds of Pleistocene Madagascar
- Aerosaurus X: a Permo-Carboniferous varanodont "pelycosaur," more robust than most in the family
- Aetosauridae X: also known as Stagnolepidae -- armored suchian vegetarians of the Triassic
- Aetosaurus X: a smallish aetosaur with square armor plates
- Agamidae: Old World iguanas; a diverse group of evil-looking lizards with names like Draco and Moloch
- Aigialosauridae X: late Mesozoic aquatic reptiles from Europe, sister group of the mosasaurs
- Aïstopoda X: snake-like Permo-Carboniferous lepospondyls
- Alamosaurus X: a Late Cretaceous titanosaurid immigrant to North America
- Albertosaurus X: a Late Cretaceous, more northerly cousin of Tyrannosaurus
- Alectrosaurus X: an Asian relative of Tyrannosaurus
- Allenypterus X:a weird Bear Gulch actinistian
- Alethinophidia: all snakes except the "blind snakes"
- Alligatoridae: alligators, caimans, and a few others
- Allosauridae X: Allosaurus and Acrocanthosaurus -- Late Mesozoic carnosaurs
- Allosauroidea X: all the carnosaurs except some early odd-balls
- Allotheria X: haramyids and multituberculates. This clade may or may not exist.
- Altirhinus X: Cretaceous hadrosauroid, sister of the Hadrosauridae.
- Altungulata: horses > cows
- Alvarezsauridae X: Late Cretaceous flightless birds with very wide distribution -- and very peculiar arms.
- Alvarezsaurus X: a large and poorly known basal Alvarezsaurid from South America
- Alxasaurus X: a primitive therizinosaur from the Albian of China
- Ambulocetidae X: "walking whales" -- early amphibious cetaceans from the Middle Eocene
- Ameridelphia: South American marsupials
- Amiidae: probably Amiopsis + Amia -- the Late Mesozoic, Tethys-based branch of the Amiiformes
- Amiiformes: probably the original (Triassic) worldwide radiation of medium-sized freshwater neopterygians
- Amiinae: the bowfin, Amia and its closest relatives
- Amiopsis X: a Late Mesozoic European member of the Amiidae -- perhaps a staple of Archaeopteryx
- Amniota: fully land-adapted tetrapods
- Ampelosaurus X: a primitive, but very late, armored titanosaur, from the Maastrichtian of Europe
- Amphiaspidida X: really strange, highly armored, jawless fishes from the Devonian of Russia
- Amphiaspidoidei X: the most extreme of the amphiaspids
- Amphibolurinae: Australian agamid lizards
- Amphilestes X: a Middle Jurassic triconodont mammal with interlocking molars
- Amphisbaena: secretive legless lizards
- Anagalida: rabbits, rodents and elephant shrews
- Anagalidae X: poorly known and rarely studied rabbit/rodent cousins from the Paleogene
- Anagaloidea X: more of the same
- Anapsida: one of the four great amniote clades, this group includes pareiasaurs, turtles, and bolosaurs
- Anarosaurus X: a small Middle Triassic pachypleurosaur with disproportionately long hind legs
- Anaspida X: odd, very basal and early jawless fishes without shields (hence the name) and with numerous gill openings in a slanting line
- Anatalavis X: Cretaceous to Eocene goose/duck, sister of the magpie goose of Australia.
- Anatidae: the crown group of living ducks, geese & swans
- Anatinae: ducks
- Anatini: dabbling ducks
- Anatoidea: ducks, swans, most geese & close relatives
- Anatolepis X: very early jawless fish from the Ordovician of North America
- Anchisaurus X: a rather basal prosauropod from the Late Triassic and Early Jurassic of North America and perhaps elsewhere
- Andesaurus X: big, relatively basal titanosaur from South America
- Angistorhinus X: a Carnian phytosaur with a tall skull and down-turned rostrum
- Anguimorpha: the clade uniting anguimorph and varanoid lizards
- Anguoidea: Xenosaurus, anguid lizards, shinisaurs, etc.
- Angusaurus X: a long-snouted trematosaurid temnospondyl from the Early Triassic of Russia.
- Anhimidae: screamers
- Aniliidae: the false coral snake of South America
- Aniloidea: an almost extinct snake group, sister of the macrostomates
- Ankylosauria X: ankylosaurs and nodosaurs
- Ankylosauridae X: Ankylosaurus > Nodosaurus
- Ankylosauromorpha X: probably Ankylosaurus > Stegosaurus
- Anchipteraspididae X: small pteraspidid Siluro-Devonian jawless fishes which resemble cyathaspidiforms in having a single, fused branchio- cornual plate
- Anomalepididae: a small family of larger, South American scolecophidians ("blind snakes")
- Anomochilidae:
Anomochilus, a very strange and derived aniloid snake
- Anomodontia X: dicynodonts and other toothless Permo-Triassic therapsids
- Anoplosuchus
X: an early (Permian) and basal dicynodont therapsid
- Anoplotheroidea X: an early Neogene ungulate group, convergent on camels
- Anotophysi: milkfishes and other freshwater teleosts without Weberian ossicles
- Anseranas: the magpie goose of Australia & New Guinea
- Anseres: ducks, geese & swans
- Anseriformes: ducks > chickens. Of extant birds,
ducks, geese, swans, & screamers.
- Anserinae: geese & swans
- Anteosauria X: the first really succesful therapsids, from the later Permian of Africa, Asia & China
- Anteosauridae X: rather dog-like carniverous Permian therapsids
- Anteosaurinae X: large, Late Permian anteosaurs with oddly short legs.
- Anteosaurus X: well-known standard bearer of the family Anteosauridae
- Anthracosauroidea X: embolomeres, gephyrostegids and a few other Late Paleozoic tetrapod odds and ends
- Anthracotheroidea X: Eocene artiodactyl group of uncertain composition, probably close to hippos.
- Anthropoidea: Texans > tarsiers, including apes, monkeys and people
- Antiarcha X: one of the two big placoderm clades, this is the Bothriolepis, bug-like group
- Anura: crown group frogs
- Apalolepididae X: a scale family of Early Devonian theolodontid thelodonts
- Apatosaurinae X: Apatosaurus, the former Brontosaurus.
- Apodiformes: hummingbirds and swifts
- Apternodontidae X: Eocene to Oligocene proto-shrews from North America.
- Apterygiformes: kiwis
- Archaeornithes X: Archaeopteryx
- Araeoscelidans X: Permo-Carboniferous lizard-like critters who form one of the anchors for the crown group Diapsida.
- Aragosaurus X: a primitive macronarian sauropod, from the Early Cretaceous of Europe
- Arandaspida X:a very early (Ordovician) line of pteraspidomorph fishes
- Archaeonectrus X: : a basal pliosauroid from the Early Jurassic of Europe
- ArchaeosyodonX: a basal ?anteosaurian dinocephalian from the Middle Permian of Russia with a deep and massive skull
- Archaeothyris X: a Late Carboniferous "pelycosaur" from Canada, the oldest synapsid known from reasonably good remains.
- Archegosauroidea X: big, rather slim and croc-like temnospondyls from the Permian
- Archonta: a big, important, but still uncertain clade including primates, tree shrews and bats.
- Archosauria: rocs + crocs, a big crown group also including dinosaurs and (probably) pterosaurs
- Archosauriformes: an arbitrary rest stop between Archosauromorpha and Archosauria, defined as Proterosuchus + birds.
- Archosauromorpha: drakes > snakes. One of the two complementary reptile clades making up the Sauria.
- Arctostylopida X: the most primitive paraxonic (cows > horses) ungulates, mostly from the Paleocene of Laurasia
- Argentinasaurus X: perhaps the largest land animal ever, and perhaps the most frequently misspelled dinosaur, a huge sauropod from the Early Cretaceous of you-know-where
- Argentiniformes: herring, smelt, etc.
- Arthrodira X: placoderms with a movable joint between the head and body, including the famous Dunkleosteus.
- Artiodactyla: cows > whales, perhaps, or sows + cows.
- Ascidiacea: Classic urochordates with "tadpole" larvae and sessile adult.
- Asioryctitheria X: Epitherians, but no one knows what sort....
- Asterolepidoidei X: some late and deviant antiarch placoderms with simplified pectoral limbs/fins and very long armor
- Astraspidae X: Ordovician fishes with tessellated armor and large, mushroom-shaped dentine tubercles
- Ateleaspis X: our favorite osteostracan, which has always reminded us of an "Ironclad" from the American Civil War.
- Atlasaurus X: an early brachiosaur from the Middle Jurassic of Africa
- Atractaspididae: very basal colubrid snakes
- Attenborosaurus X: an early plesiosaur
- Ausktribosphenidae X: An extinct group of Cretaceous Australian tribosphenic mammals which are, or have a striking dental similarity to, placental mammals.
- Australidelphia: the Australian radiation of marsupials
- Australosphenida: Gondwanan mammaliaforms with convergently derived tribosphenic molars.
- Autoceta: crown group cetaceans (whales and dolphins)
- Aves: Archaeopteryx + living birds
- Avetheropoda: Allosaurus + birds
- Aythyini: diving or bay ducks, scaups, and pochards
- Azemiopinae: The poorly known Fea's Viper of Tibet
- Azhdarchoidea X: Quetzalcoatlus and related pterosaurs
-B-
- Balognathidae X: a group of prionodontidan conodonts
- Bandringidae X: small ctenacanthiform sharks with hugely elongated rostra from the Late Carboniferous of North America
- Baphetes X: a well-known baphetid (proto-temnospondyl) from the Late Carboniferous of Europe and North America
- Baphetidae X: a strange group of Late Carboniferous amphibians with "keyhole" orbits
- Barapasaurus X: an early, perhaps the earliest, really big sauropod (14-18 m), sister of the Eusauropoda, from the Early Jurassic of India
- Barbereniidae X: a probably non-existent group of Late Cretaceous South American symmetrodonts.
- Barosaurus X: a big, Late Jurassic African diplodocine sauropod.
- Basilosauridae: in essence all whales in which the pelvis has lost contact with the spine.
- Basilosaurus X: a big serpentine whale from the Middle Eocene
- Batomorphii: modern rays and skates
- Batrachosauria: Seymouria + Jane Seymour -- amniotes and their close relatives
- Batrachotomus X: the dominant predator of the Lower Keuper
- Baurusuchidae X: terrestrial crocs who looked like therapsids, from the Late Cretaceous of South America
- Beipiaosaurus X: a feathered therizinosaur from the Early Cretaceous of China
- Benneviaspidida X: Early Devonian cornuate osteostracans with particularly elaborate head shields
- Biarmosuchia X: the most basal therapsids known from well-preserved fossils
- Biarmosuchidae X: Biarmosuchus, a biarmosuchian of rather light and open construction
- Bienotherium X: an Early Jurassic cynodont from China
- Birgeriidae X: Triassic fish closely related to the sturgeon
- Bishanopliosaurus X: a poorly known pliosaur from the Early Jurassic of China
- Bocatherium X: a cynognathian cynodont from the Middle Jurassic of Mexico
- Boidea: boas and pythons
- Bolosauridae X: an odd group of lizard-like anapsids from the Late Permian
- Bolotridon X: an Early Triassic galesaurid cynodont from South Africa
- Archipelepididae X: a scale taxon of thelodonts, quite similar to Turinia, but earlier and with different ornament and very large scale bases, from the Silurian of Canada.
- Bothremydidae X: an extinct, mostly Cenozoic, group of mostly Laurasian pleurodire turtles
- Bothriolepidoidei X: Bothriolepis and closely related antiarch placoderms of the later Devonian
- Bothriospondylus X: a large European brachiosaurid sauropod of the Late Jurassic
- Bovoidea: cattle, sheep goats, etc.
- Brachauchenius X: a Late Cretaceous pliosaur from North America
- Brachiosauridae X: sister group to the titanosaurs
- Brachiosaurus X possibly the largest tetrapod ever
- Brachyopidae X: late, long-lived family of temnospondyls with short, broad flat skulls with large eyes situated far forward
- Brachyopoidea X: the last temnospondyls
- Brachypterygius X: Jurassic ichthyosaur distiguished by very broad fore-paddles.
- Brachysuchus X a very large Late Triassic phytosaur
- Bradysaurs X : large primitive pareiasaurs from the Middle Permian of South Africa
- Brithopodidae X: a minor family of anteosaurs from the Late Permian of Russia, probably synonymous with Anteosauridae
- Brithopus X: the standard-bearer of the previous family
- Broomistega X: a rhinesuchid temnospondyl from the Early Triassic of South Africa
- Bulbulodentata X: a non-South American stem group of the endemic South African ungulates
-C-
- Cabonnichthys X: an odd Australian tristichopterid (osteolepiform) fish from the Famennian
- Caenophidia: all derived poisonous snakes and close relatives
- Caeciliidae: a large group of caecilians, probably paraphyletic
- Californosaurus X: a medium-large ichthyosaur from the Late Triassic of North America
- Camarasauridae X: a small family of basal macronarian sauropods
- Camarasaurus X: a very well known Apatosaur-like sauropod from the Late Jurassic of North America.
- Camelidae: camels
- Campylognathoidea X: an early group of pterosaurs, including Eudimorphodon.
- Canowindridae X: Late Devoinian Australian osteolepiforms
- Capitosauria X: large to huge Triassic temnospondyls
- Capitosauridae X: Late Triassic capitosauroids
- Caprimulgiformes: nightjars, night hawks, potoos, oilbirds, etc.
- Captorhinidae X: one of two succesful groups of early (eu)reptiles
- Carcharhiniformes: typical nasty-looking galeomorph sharks
- Carcharodontosauridae X: large late Allosaur cousins
- Caridosuctor X: an actinistian from Bear Gulch
- Carinatae: Ichthyornis plus living birds.
- Carnosauria X: Allosaurus and close relatives
- Caseasauria X: the earliest branch from the synapsid tree
- Caseidae X: the first herbivorous synapsids
- Casuariformes: emus and cassowaries
- Caturoidea X: Jurassic cousins of Amia
- Cedarosaurus X: Early Cretaceous brachiosaur from North America
- Centrosaurinae X: Styracosaurus and close relatives
- Cephalaspidida X: a group of cornuate osteostracans (jawless fish) from the Early Devonian of Europe
- Cephalaspidomorphi X: a term we've recycled to mean Osteostraci + Galeaspida (big group of jawless fishes)
- Cephalochordata: amphioxus -- the sister group to Chordata
- Cerapoda X: hadrosaurs + ceratopsians
- Ceratopsia X: all Marginocephalia except the pachycephalosaurs
- Ceratopsinae X: the immediate family of Triceratops
- Ceratosauria X: coelophysids, abelisaurs and other non-tetanuran theropod dinosaurs
- Ceresiosaurus X: a nothosaur from the
Middle Triassic seas of Europe
- Cervoidea: deer, elk, moose and similar ruminants
- Cetacea: dolphins > deer -- the whales, dolphins and their older cousins
- Cetartiodactyla: deer + dolphins
- Cetiosauridae X: a rather early, unspecialized sauropod from the Middle & Late Jurassic.
- Chaliminia X: a very early (Late Triassic) trithelodont
- Chamaeleonidae: chameleons
- Champsosauridae X: a long-lived & well-known family of the odd Choristodera, crocodile analogues
- Charadriiformes: gulls, auks & relatives.
- Charadriomorphae: most modern shore birds, pigeons and parrots
- Cheirolepis X: a Devonian fish, about the most basal form we know of with approximately "standard" dermal skull bones
- Chelidae: Small to medium-sized "snake-neck" aquatic turtles of Australia & South America.
- Chialingosaurus X: an early Chinese stegosaurid -- more gracile than Stegosaurus
- Chigutisauridae X: the last temnospondyls (unless frogs are temnospondyls), from as late as the Jurassic
- Chimaeriformes: probably Myriacanthus + Chimaera, living chimaeras and close relatives
- Chimaeroidei: the crown group of living chimaeras
- Chiroptera: bats
- Chondrichthyes: the shark leg of the eugnathostome crown group, hence sharks > lawyers.
- Chondrichthyes (Crown): chimaeras + living sharks, the crown group of living chondrichthyans
- Chondrostei: the sturgeon stem group, caviar > lox.
- Chordata: everything in Palaeos Vertebrates: urochordates + vertebrates, or tunicates + tuna.
- Chrysochloroidea: the "golden moles" of southern Africa.
- Chthomaloporus X: a poorly known Russian (mid to Late Permian) anteosaur
- Chubutisaurus X: a South American sauropod from the middle Cretaceous, possibly sister to the Titanosauria
- Chuchinolepidae X: basal antiarch placoderms from the Early Devonian of China
- Chunkingosaurus X: Late Jurassic Chinese stegosaur
- Cichlidae: cichlids
- Ciconiidae: storks
- Ciconiiformes: storks, herons, egrets, ibis, etc.
- Ciconiimorphae: most modern shorebirds
- Cimoliasauridae X: a poorly known family of mostly Cretaceous plesiosaurs
- Cimoliasaurus X: a plesiosaur from the middle to Late Cretaceous of Australia
- Cimolodonta X: late-surviving Cretaceous and Paleocene multituberculates with long snouts and a huge, medial incisor
- Cladistia: an ancient order of actinopterygian fishes with heavy enameled scales, of which only the bichirs and reedfish survive
- Cladoselachida X: a very successful group of Late Devonian sharks with large pectoral fins, but otherwise rather modern-looking
- Cladotheria: the clade uniting dryolestoids with therian mammals
- Claudiosaurus X: a very primitive marine, neodiapsid reptile, from the Late Permian of Madagascar.
- Clevosaurs X: the sister group of Sphenodon, mostly Jurassic
- Climatiiformes X: the most basal group of acanthodians, from the Late Silurian to Early Carboniferous.
- Clupeocephala: the clade uniting the herring - anchovy group with the euteleosts
- Clupeomorpha: fish in tin cans -- anchovy, herring and sardines.
- Cnemiornis X: an extinct goose from the Pleistocene & Holocene of New Zealand
- Coahomasuchus X: Late Triassic aetosaur, sister to Stagnolepis.
- Cochleosauridae X: primitive temnospondyls from the Late Carboniferous of Eastern Europe
- Cochliodontidae X: a surprisingly modern-looking group of mostly Permian holocephalians
- Coelurosauravidae X: very basal Permo-Triassic gliding diapsids of Europe, also known as Weigeltisauridae
- Coelurosauria: all theropods closer to birds than to Allosaurus.
- Coelurus X: a poorly-known basal coelurosaur from the Late Jurassic of North America
- Coliiformes: "mouse birds," good climbers with fluffy feathers
- Colosteidae X: Carboniferous amphibians, perhaps the sister group to the temnospondyls
- Colubridae: rat snakes, corn snakes, king snakes, garter snakes, indigo snakes, boomslangs, etc.
- Colubroidea: advanced, venomous snakes
- Columbiformes: doves, pigeons (e.g. Columba), Raphus (dodo), sand grouse.
- Colymbosaurus X: latest and largest of the Plesiosauroidea known from Jurassic England
- Compsognathidae X: small, light-bodies predators of the Late Jurassic and Early Cretaceous.
- Concordia: X a small, basal captorhinid from the Pennsylvanian of Kansas
- Confuciusornithidae X: Primitive birds with extraordinarily long wing feathers and long caudal display plumage
- Conodonta X: very, very early jaws and teeth of poorly understood design and relationships.
- Cornuata X: a large & long-lived group of osteostracan fishes with pointed lateral processes (cornua) of the head shield
- Corosaurus X: perhaps the most basal known sauropterygian, from the
Triassic of North America
- Corvaspididae X: Late Silurian & Early Devonian jawless fishes -- possibly
stem cyathaspids
- Corvaspis X: the best known corvaspid
- Corveolepis X: a genus carved out of Corvaspis material
- Cotylosauria: diadectomorphs + crown group amniotes
- Cracidae: the colorful curassows, guans, and chachalacids
- Craniata: hags + hagfish
- Crassigyrinus X: an odd and evil-looking basal tetrapod (or near-tetrapod) with diminutive arms
- Crocidurinae: southern shrews
- Crocodylia: living crocs > dryosaurs
- Crocodylidae: crocodiles > alligators
- Crocodyliformes: crocodiles > Sphenosuchia
- Crocodylinae: the 12 living species of true crocodiles
- Crocodylomorpha: roughly speaking, the level at which crocs stopped trying to compete with
dinosaurs
- Crotalinae: pit vipers
- Crurotarsi: crocs > dinosaurs
- Cryolophosaurus X: an Early Jurassic carnosaur from Antarctica (=
"Elvisaurus")
- Cryptocleidoidea X: late Mesozoic short-necked plesiosaurs
- Cryptocleididae X: Cryptocleidus and immediate family
- Cryptocleidus X: an early (Jurassic), successful member of the short-neck plesiosaur
tribe.
- Cryptodira: today, the predominant turtle breed except in some Gondwanan lands
- Ctenacanthidae X: the dominant elasmobranch sharks of the Permian and
Carboniferous
- Ctenacanthiformes: all elasmobranch sharks except the xenacanthids
- Ctenaspis X: a very peculiar-looking heterosracan jawless fish from the Early
Devonian, probably the sister of all other amphiaspids
- Ctenochasmatoidea X: pterodactyloids with shallow keels and plantigrade
feet, from the Late Jurassic and Early Cretaceous
- Ctenosquamata: most
Cenozoic teleosts
- Cuculidae: all
cuculiforms except the roadrunner
- Cuculiformes: cuckoos, the roadrunner, and possibly a few others
- Cyathaspidida X: streamlined heterostracans with fusiform or cigar-shaped
head-shields made up of two main components, dorsal and ventral epitega
- Cyathaspidiformes X: the amphiaspid-cyathaspid leg of crown group
Heterostraci, Siluro-Devonian jawless fishes with big, unitary armors
- Cyclosquamata: deep sea teleosts with non-protrusible, toothed maxillae
- Cylindrophiidae: pipe snakes
- Cymbospondylus X: the most primitive of the Ichthyosauria
- Cynodontia: cynodonts
- Cynognathia X: Cynognathus > Sinocodon,
by our reckoning, the eucynodont branch that didn't lead to mammals
- Cynognathidae X: a paraphyletic cluster of basal cynognaths
- Cynosaurus X: a rather obscure Permian cynodont which is, despite the name, a
galesaurid.
- Cypriniformes: carp, minnows, loaches and others
