Flagellicaudata

Flagellicaudata is a clade of Dinosauria. It belongs to Sauropoda and includes two families, the Dicraeosauridae and the Diplodocidae.[1]

Flagellicaudata Temporal range: Early Jurassic–Early Cretaceous, 174–122 Ma PreꞒ Ꞓ O S D C P T J K Pg N
Restoration of Amargasaurus
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Chordata
Clade:	Dinosauria
Clade:	Saurischia
Suborder:	†Sauropodomorpha
Clade:	†Sauropoda
Clade:	†Eusauropoda
Clade:	†Neosauropoda
Clade:	†Diplodocimorpha
Clade:	†Flagellicaudata Harris & Dodson, 2004
Families
†Dicraeosauridae †Diplodocidae

Phylogeny

The clade Flagellicaudata was erected by Harris and Dodson (2004) for the diplodocoid clade formed by Dicraeosauridae and Diplodocidae in their paper describing a new genus of sauropod dinosaur, Suuwassea. The authors carried out a phylogenetic analysis and noted that Suuwassea, although more derived than Rebbachisauridae, is in a trichotomy with other families belonging to Diplodocoidea (Diplodocidae and Dicraeosauridae). Flagellicaudata was defined as a node-based clade consisting of the most recent common ancestor of Dicraeosaurus and Diplodocus and all of its descendants. The word "Flagellicaudata" refers to long, whip-like tails of that animals (flagellum is a Latin word meaning "whip" and cauda means in Latin "tail").[1]

Fragment of cladogram presented in Harris and Dodson, 2004:[1]

Diplodocoidea	Flagellicaudata Diplodocidae Diplodocinae   Barosaurus     Diplodocus       Apatosaurus       Suuwassea   Dicraeosauridae   Dicraeosaurus     Amargasaurus           Rebbachisaurus     Nigersaurus     Rayososaurus

References

1. JD Harris, P Dodson (2004). "A new diplodocoid sauropod dinosaur from the Upper Jurassic Morrison Formation of Montana, USA". Acta Palaeontologica Polonica. 49 (2): 197–210.