⃛and turn back again

The conventional view of evolutionary relationships within the living reptiles is that turtles are basal to the other groups. Their placement is based largely on the absence in turtles of temporal fenestrae, openings on either side of the skull involved in jaw muscle attachment, which all other groups of living reptiles and their descendants have. Rieppel and deBraga's recent analyses1,2 of fossil and living groups of reptiles challenged this long-held conclusion, although their results have since been questioned3. We present a molecular analysis in support of Rieppel and deBraga's original conclusions.