Matrices
The three different character-taxon matrices that I have published can be downloaded below. All are in MacClade format. The first was for the higher-level analysis of sauropod interrelationships that I published with Paul Sereno as a Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology monograph. My 1999 Ph.D. thesis included a matrix for lower-level sauropod relationships that has been used by some researchers in the years before I published it in modified form. There are some important coding and scoring differences between that unpublished matrix and the version that was pubished in my 2002 Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society paper, and I recommend using the ZJLS matrix. My 2005 Paleobiology paper contained a third matrix that only pertained to features varying among non-neosauropods. Importantly, the matrix contains updated scorings for Omeisaurus, Mamenchisaurus, and Barapasaurus based on new materials described by Tang et al. (2001), Ouyang and Ye (2002), and Bandyopadhyay et al. (2003), respectively. It also has scorings for newly described taxa Tazoudasaurus (Allain et al. 2005), Isanosaurus (Buffetaut et al. 2000), Antenonitrus (Yates & Kitching 2004), and Gongxianosaurus (He et al. 1998) as well as for Blikanasaurus (Galton & van Heerden 1985, 1998).
downloads:
If you notice any erroneous scorings or if you have questions with character definitions, please contact me.
*A note to users: the 2002 matrix yields the same basic results as reported in ZJLS, but treelength is one step longer. I cannot explain this, but other details are the same. Searching for suboptimal trees yields the exact same number of trees that I published in Wilson (2002:Table 11). Others have had this same problem with the matrix - and on occasion folks have been able to replicate the published 430-step tree by changing multistate character options. I think there may be some quirk with PAUP*, but I cannot say for sure. I don't think there is an error in the matrix, but I have not gone through and checked every entry since the two times I went through it before I published the paper (this took two weeks).
References
Allain, R., N. Aquesbi, J. Dejax, C. Meyer, M. Monbaron, C. Montenat, P. Richir, M. Rochdy, D. Russell, and P. Taquet. 2004. A basal sauropod dinosaur from the Early Cretaceous of Morocco. Comptes Rendus Palevol 3: 199-208.
Bandyopadhyay, S., D. P. Sengupta, and D. D. Gillette. 2003. Dentition of Barapasaurus tagorei from the Kota Formation (Upper Jurassic) of India. Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology 23: 31A-32A.
Buffetaut, E., V. Suteethorn, G. Cuny, H. Tong, J. LeLoeuff, S. Khansubha, and S. Jongautchariyakul. 2000. The earliest known sauropod dinosaur. Nature 407: 72-74.
Galton, P. M. and J. van Heerden. 1985. Partial hindlimb of Blikanasaurus cromptoni n. gen. and n. sp., representing a new family of prosauropod dinosaurs from the Upper Triassic of South Africa. Géobios 18: 509-516.
_____. and _____. 1998. Anatomy of the prosauropod dinosaur Blikanasaurus cromptoni (Upper Triassic, South Africa), with notes on the other tetrapods from the lower Elliot Formation. Paläontologische Zeitschrift 72: 163-177.
He, X., C. Wang, S. Liu, F. Zhou, T. Liu, K. Cai, and B. Dai. 1998. [A new sauropod dinosaur from the Early Jurassic in Gongxian County, South Sichuan]. Acta Geologica Sichuan 18: 1-6. [in Chinese with English abstract]
Ouyang, H. and Ye, Y. 2002. [The first mamenchisaurian skeleton with complete skull, Mamenchisaurus youngi]. Sichuan Science and Technology Publishing House, Chengdu. [in Chinese with extended English abstract]
Tang, F. X. Jin, X. Kang, and G. Zhang. 2001. Omeisaurus maoianus, a complete Sauropoda from Jingyan, Sichuan. Research works of Natural Museum of Zhejiang, China Ocean Press, Beijing. [in Chinese with extended English abstract]
Wilson, J. A. 2002. Sauropod dinosaur phylogeny: critique and cladistic analysis. Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society 136: 217-276.
Wilson, J. A. and P. C. Sereno. 1998. Early evolution and higher-level phylogeny of sauropod dinosaurs. Society of Vertebrate Paleontology Memoir 5: 1-68 (supplement to Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology 18).
Yates, A. M. and J. W. Kitching. 2003. The earliest known sauropod dinosaur and the first steps towards sauropod evolution. Proceedings of the Royal Society of London B 270: 1753-1758.
Character-Taxon Matrices
