TY - JOUR AU - Werneburg, Ingmar AU - Sánchez-Villagra, Marcelo R. PY - 2009 DA - 2009/04/23 TI - Timing of organogenesis support basal position of turtles in the amniote tree of life JO - BMC Evolutionary Biology SP - 82 VL - 9 IS - 1 AB - The phylogenetic position of turtles is the most disputed aspect in the reconstruction of the land vertebrate tree of life. This controversy has arisen after many different kinds and revisions of investigations of molecular and morphological data. Three main hypotheses of living sister-groups of turtles have resulted from them: all reptiles, crocodiles + birds or squamates + tuatara. Although embryology has played a major role in morphological studies of vertebrate phylogeny, data on developmental timing have never been examined to explore and test the alternative phylogenetic hypotheses. We conducted a comprehensive study of published and new embryological data comprising 15 turtle and eight tetrapod species belonging to other taxa, integrating for the first time data on the side-necked turtle clade. SN - 1471-2148 UR - https://doi.org/10.1186/1471-2148-9-82 DO - 10.1186/1471-2148-9-82 ID - Werneburg2009 ER -