Placodontiformes

Placodontiformes Temporal range: Middle - Late Triassic
Skeleton of the placodontian placodontiform Henodus chelyops
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Chordata
Class:	Reptilia
Superorder:	†Sauropterygia
Clade:	†Placodontiformes Neenan et al., 2013
Subgroups
†Palatodonta †Placodontia

Placodontiformes is a clade of sauropterygian marine reptiles that includes placodonts and the non-placodont Palatodonta. It was erected in 2013 with the description of Palatodonta. Placodontiformes is the most basal clade of Sauropterygia and the sister group of Eosauropterygia, which includes all other sauropterygians.^[1]

Phylogeny

Below is a cladogram from Neenan et al. (2013) showing the position of Placodontiformes within Sauropterygia:^[1]

Sauropterygia	Placodontiformes Palatodonta Placodontia Paraplacodus Placodus Cyamodontoidea Cyamodus Psephoderma Eosauropterygia Pistosauroidea Yunguisaurus Plesiosauria Pistosaurus Augustasaurus Corosaurus Cymatosaurus Nothosauroidea Diandongosaurus Pachypleurosauria

References

1. Neenan, J. M.; Klein, N.; Scheyer, T. M. (2013). "European origin of placodont marine reptiles and the evolution of crushing dentition in Placodontia". Nature Communications 4: 1621. doi:10.1038/ncomms2633.