YouTube videos on the origin of turtles
from Sci Show 2921
Titled: Slowly Solving the Mystery of Turtle Origins
This one promotes Eunotosaurus and Pappochelys,
two taxa tested in the large reptile tree (LRT, 2338 taxa, subset Fig 1). These two are not related to each other, nor to turtles.
The second video, from the Denver Museum of Nature and Science
is titled, Evolutionary History of Turtles. It also focuses on Eunotosaurus (seen in the still shot above) just because it looks turtle-ish. No attempt was made to test all competing canditates.
The third video follows results recovered in the LRT.
It includes taxa not mentioned by the other two videos and the LRT tests all competing candidates.
This is old news. Not much has been published on the origin of turtles lately.
Academics have not been curious enough to test LRT taxa.
Scientists should be curious. Turtle workers are not.
Figure 2. Subset of the LRT focusing on turtles and their ancestors.
” data-medium-file=”https://pterosaurheresies.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/12/turtle_cladogram588b.jpg?w=180″ data-large-file=”https://pterosaurheresies.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/12/turtle_cladogram588b.jpg?w=584″ class=”size-full wp-image-62870″ src=”https://pterosaurheresies.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/12/turtle_cladogram588b.jpg” alt=”Figure 2. Subset of the LRT focusing on turtles and their ancestors.” width=”584″ height=”972″ srcset=”https://pterosaurheresies.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/12/turtle_cladogram588b.jpg?w=584&h=972 584w, https://pterosaurheresies.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/12/turtle_cladogram588b.jpg?w=90&h=150 90w, https://pterosaurheresies.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/12/turtle_cladogram588b.jpg?w=180&h=300 180w, https://pterosaurheresies.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/12/turtle_cladogram588b.jpg 588w” sizes=”(max-width: 584px) 100vw, 584px” />
Figure 1. Subset of the LRT focusing on turtles and their ancestors.
Added a few minutes after publishing this post:
Yet another misunderstood Evolution of Turtles video from several years ago. This one featuring a Eunotosaurus relative, Eorhynchochelys. The narrator reports, the origin of turtles is inconclusive.
This is incorrect. The LRT tests all competing candidates. Other workers have not yet repeated this experiment.
References
https://www.researchgate.net/publication/328388481_The_dual_origin_of_turtles_from_pareiasaurs
Source: https://pterosaurheresies.wordpress.com/2025/04/26/youtube-videos-on-the-origin-of-turtles/
