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Millerettidae

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Millerettidae is an extinct family of early reptiles from the Middle Permian to the Late Permian period (Capitanian - Changhsingian stages) of South Africa and possibly Russia. Although they were interpreted as a group of 'parareptiles', recent anatomical studies and phylogenetic analyses have suggested that they are better interpreted as close relatives of the Neodiapsida as part of the larger clade Parapleurota. The millerettids were small insectivores and probably resembled modern lizards in appearance and lifestyle, even possessing a tympanum, or eardrum, on the side of their skull.

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Millerettidae is an extinct family of early reptiles from the Middle Permian to the Late Permian period (Capitanian - Changhsingian stages) of South Africa and possibly Russia. Although they were interpreted as a group of 'parareptiles', recent anatomical studies and phylogenetic analyses have suggested that they are better interpreted as close relatives of the Neodiapsida as part of the larger clade Parapleurota. The millerettids were small insectivores and probably resembled modern lizards in appearance and lifestyle, even possessing a tympanum, or eardrum, on the side of their skull.

The following cladogram shows the phylogenetic position of the Millerettidae within 'Parareptilia', from Ruta et al., 2011.

Excerpted from Wikipedia’s “Millerettidae” article, available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.