The forgotten clade: the Real proximal ancestors to Dinosauria

Ignored by Baron et al. 2017, and everybody else
the Junggarsuchus clade (including Pseudhesperosuchus, Carnufex and Trialestes in order of increasing quadrupedality, Figs. 1–4) nests as the proximal ancestors to Herrerasaurus (Fig. 1) and the rest of the Dinosauria (Fig. 5) in the large reptile tree (LRT). That cladogram tests a wider gamut of taxa in greater detail than any other reptile cladogram ever published, attempting to not overlook anything. The Junggarsuchia is a sister clade to the Crocodylomorpha with both arising from a taxon near Lewisuchus (Fig. 1). Traditional paleontology (see Wikipedia) nests this largely ignored clade with the sphenosuchian crocodylomorphs (Fig. 4)… and for two good reasons!

One: Paleontologists never seem to include Dinosauria
in their smaller gamut croc analyses because they’re looking at crocs!~. So once again, taxon exclusion is holding some workers back from seeing ‘the big picture’. ReptileEvolution.com and the blog you are currently reading is all about examining ‘the big picture.’

Two: Junggarsuchians ALSO have elongate proximal wrist bones
Elongate proximal carpals are found in both sphenosuchian crocs and derived members of the Junggarsuchus clade. Paleontolgists wrongly assumed such odd wrist bones were homologous. It’s an easy mistake to make. However, the LRT makes clear that intervening taxa, including Junggarsuchus, do not have elongate wrist bones.

Among taxa that preserve the manus,
(Fig. 3) it is Junggarsuchus that nests closest to Herrerasaurus and the Dinosauria.

Like the basal members of the Crocodylomorpha
the Junggarsuchus clade (the Prodinosauria here) transition from bipedal basal members to quadrupedal derived members, with the longest forelimbs belonging to the most derived member, Trialestes (Fig. 3). Distinct from the others and contra the original interpretation, I think Trialestes may have had a larger ulnare than radiale, to match its larger ulna.

Let’s not forget
PVL 4597 (Fig. 6) which was mistakenly considered a specimen of Gracilisuchus by (Lecuona and Desojo 2011), but under phylogenetic analysis in the LRT, still nests as the proximal outgroup to Herrerasaurus. It is tiny specimen, supporting the hypothesis of phylogenetic miniaturization at clade origin. And it retains a small proximally oriented calcaneal tuber, as found in other Junggarsuchians.

We looked at
phylogenetic miniaturization at the origin of several pterosaur clades. Well, it happens here too, at the base of the Dinosauria (Fig. 1) with PVL 4597 (Fig. 6), easily overlooked, easily mistaken for something else.

One should not ‘choose’ outgroup taxa
based on paradigm, tradition, guessing, convenience or opinion. Rather outgroup taxa should ‘choose themselves’ based on rigorous testing of a large gamut of outgroup candidates in phylogenetic analysis. To minimize selection bias, the LRT provides 858 outgroup taxa the opportunity to nest close to dinosaurs.

References
Baron MG, Norman DB, Barrett PM 2017. A new hypothesis of dinosaur relationships and early dinosaur evolution. Nature 543:501–506.
Bonaparte JF 1969. Dos nuevos “faunas” de reptiles triásicos de Argentina. Gondwana Stratigraphy. Paris: UNESCO. pp. 283–306.
Butler RJ. et al. 2014. New clade of enigmatic early archosaurs yields insights into early pseudosuchian phylogeny and the biogeography of the archosaur radiation. BMC Evol. Biol. 14, 128.
Clark JM et al. 2000. A new specimen of Hesperosuchus agilis from the Upper Triassic of New Mexico and the interrelationships of basal crocodylomorph archosaurs. Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology 20 (4): 683–704.
doi:10.1671/0272-4634(2000)020[0683:ANSOHA]2.0.CO;2.
Clark JM, Xu X, Forster CA and Wang Y 2004. A Middle Jurassic ‘sphenosuchian’ from China and the origin of the crocodilian skull. Nature 430:1021-1024.
Lecuona A and Desojo, JB 2011. Hind limb osteology of Gracilisuchus stipanicicorum(Archosauria: Pseudosuchia). Earth and Environmental Science Transactions of the Royal Society of Edinburgh 102 (2): 105–128.
Nesbitt SJ 2011. The early evolution of archosaurs: relationship and the origin ofmajor clades. Bull. Amer. Mus. Nat. Hist. 352, 1–292.
Novas FE 1994. New information on the systematics and postcranial skeleton of Herrerasaurus ischigualastensis (Theropoda: Herrerasauridae) from the Ischigualasto
Reig OA 1963. La presencia de dinosaurios saurisquios en los “Estratos de Ischigualasto” (Mesotriásico Superior) de las provincias de San Juan y La Rioja (República Argentina). Ameghiniana 3: 3-20.
Sereno PC and Novas FE 1993. The skull and neck of the basal theropod Herrerasaurusischigualastensis. Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology 13: 451-476. doi:10.1080/02724634.1994.10011525.
Zanno LE, Drymala S, Nesbitt SJ and Schneider VP 2015. Early Crocodylomorph increases top tier predator diversity during rise of dinosaurs. Scientific Reports 5:9276 DOI: 10.1038/srep09276.

wiki/Pseudhesperosuchus
wiki/Junggarsuchus
wiki/Carnufex
wiki/Herrerasaurus
wiki/Sanjuansaurus