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Synapsida [a] is a diverse group of tetrapod vertebrates that includes all mammals and their extinct relatives. It is one of the two major clades of the group Amniota, the other being the more diverse group Sauropsida (which includes all extant reptiles and birds).
Mammals and birds filled the empty niches left behind by the reptilian megafauna and, while reptile diversification slowed, bird and mammal diversification took an exponential turn. [44] However, reptiles were still important components of the megafauna, particularly in the form of large and giant tortoises .
The most popular definition states that Sauropsida is the sibling taxon to Synapsida, the other clade of amniotes which includes mammals as its only modern representatives. Although early synapsids have historically been referred to as "mammal-like reptiles", all synapsids are more closely related to mammals than to any modern reptile.
Reptiliomorpha (meaning reptile-shaped; in PhyloCode known as Pan-Amniota [2] [3]) is a clade containing the amniotes and those tetrapods that share a more recent common ancestor with amniotes than with living amphibians (lissamphibians).
While reptiles and amphibians can be quite similar externally, the French zoologist Pierre André Latreille recognized the large physiological differences at the beginning of the 19th century and split the herptiles into two classes, giving the four familiar classes of tetrapods: amphibians, reptiles, birds and mammals. [30]
Amphibians are ectothermic, anamniotic, four-limbed vertebrate animals that constitute the class Amphibia. In its broadest sense, it is a paraphyletic group encompassing all tetrapods excluding the amniotes (tetrapods with an amniotic membrane, such as modern reptiles, birds and mammals).
Unlike Benton, for example, Jacques Gauthier and colleagues forwarded a definition of Amniota in 1988 as "the most recent common ancestor of extant mammals and reptiles, and all its descendants". [26] As Gauthier makes use of a crown group definition, Amniota has a slightly different content than the biological amniotes as defined by an ...
[186] [187] A wide variety of animals are kept as pets, from invertebrates such as tarantulas, octopuses, and praying mantises, [188] reptiles such as snakes and chameleons, [189] and birds including canaries, parakeets, and parrots [190] all finding a place. However, the most kept pet species are mammals, namely dogs, cats, and rabbits.