the top of the skull is called calvaria ( skullcap ).
what is the top of the skull called?
calvaria ( skullcap )
Na
Na
when "myrmecodaptria" was first described in 2000 it was thought to be a member of gekkota, the group that includes living geckos and pygopodids (legless lizards). characteristics that "myrmecodaptria" shares in common with gekkotans include fused frontal bones that form a tube within the skull and the absence of a postorbital bone. however, "myrmecodaptria" has many features that are not found in gekkotans, such as the presence of a small hole at the top of the skull called the parietal foramen, a thick jugal bone forming a complete postorbital bar behind the eye socket, and a complete upper temporal arch closing off a pair of holes at the top of the skull called the supratemporal fenestrae. the first study to include "myrmecodaptria" in a phylogenetic analysis was published in 2006, and it did not find support for "myrmecodaptria" being a gekkotan. instead, "myrmecodaptria" was found to be more closely related to a group of lizards called autarchoglossa, a large clade or evolutionary grouping that includes skinks, anguimorphs, and snakes. the supposedly gekkotan features seen in "myrmecodaptria" may instead be characteristic of the earliest members of scleroglossa, which split into gekkotans and autarchoglossans. "myrmecodaptria" is part of the scleroglossan lineage leading to autarchoglossans, making it a "stem" autarchoglossan. "myrmecodaptria" was again included in a phylogenetic analysis authored by jack conrad in 2008, which placed it in an extinct group called bainguidae. bainguidae was positioned at the stem of autarchoglossa in the analysis (within a larger clade called evansauria), but this relationship had only weak support. the best known member of banguidae, "bainguis", may instead be a closer relative of living anguids or lacertoids, in which case bainguidae would not be a valid grouping.
myrmecodaptria