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| | superphylum Chelonia |
 | | For example, I could argue (contra Friesen's claim, which is exactly what set me off in the first place) that turtles HAVE gone through a profound adaptive breakthrough, namely, evolving a true shell and figuring out how to get their pectoral and pelvic girdles INSIDE their ribs. |
 | | If this Houdini-esque kind of a trick isn't "profound," I don't know what is. It seems to me that I could argue for turtles not only being a "class" of their own, but, say, a "subphylum" or a "phylum" or even a "superphylum"! |
 | | Systematists can't even make their minds up about what "rank" the Arthropoda should have, so what's to stop me, apart from YOUR personal opinion? |
| dml.cmnh.org /1994Jul/msg00091.html (532 words) |
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