The ReptileEvolution.com Project

Taxon exclusion is the number one problem currently vexing paleontology. The search for pterosaur, turtle, bat, snake, whale, reptile and tetrapod ancestors continues to unnecessarily befuddle paleontologists who continue to work from cherry-picked, textbook and traditional taxon lists that overlook and omit pertinent taxa. That’s why the large reptile tree (LRT), the nearly completely resolved cladogram at the heart of www.ReptileEvolution.com, includes 2212 taxa. Larger taxon numbers minimize taxon exclusion issues. Results indicate the simple act of adding taxa resolves all phylogenetic issues.

分类群排除（taxon exclusion）是当前困扰古生物学界的首要难题。针对翼龙、龟类、蝙蝠、蛇类、鲸类、爬行动物及四足动物的祖先类群搜寻工作，仍在毫无必要地令古生物学家陷入困惑——这些研究者仍基于精心挑选的教科书传统分类群列表开展研究，却忽略并遗漏了诸多相关分类群。这便是大型爬行动物树（large reptile tree, LRT）——作为www.ReptileEvolution.com核心的近乎完全解析的分支系统图（cladogram）——纳入2212个分类群的原因。更大的分类群规模可最大程度缓解分类群排除问题。研究结果表明，仅通过增加分类群这一简单操作，便可解决所有系统发育相关问题。