Editing Anapsid (section)

==Anapsida in modern taxonomy==
Anapsida is still sporadically recognized as a valid group, but is not favoured by current workers.<ref name=modestoanderson2004>{{cite journal | last1 = Modesto | first1 = S. P. | last2 = Anderson | first2 = J. S. | year = 2004 | title = The phylogenetic definition of Reptilia | journal = Systematic Biology | pmid = 15545258 | volume = 53 | issue = 5| pages = 815–821 | doi = 10.1080/10635150490503026 | doi-access = free }}</ref><ref name=TsujiMuller2009FR>{{cite journal |first1=Linda A. |last1=Tsuji |first2=Johannes |last2=Müller |year=2009 |title=Assembling the history of the Parareptilia: phylogeny, diversification, and a new definition of the clade |journal=Fossil Record |volume=12 |issue=1 |pages=71–81 |doi=10.1002/mmng.200800011 |doi-access=free |bibcode=2009FossR..12...71T }}</ref> Anapsids in the traditional meaning of the word are not a clade, but rather a [[paraphyly|paraphyletic]] group composed of all the early reptiles retaining the primitive skull morphology, grouped together by the absence of temporal openings.<ref name=modestoanderson2004 /><ref name=TsujiMuller2009FR /> Gauthier, Kluge and Rowe (1988) attempted to redefine Anapsida so it would be monophyletic, defining it as the clade containing "extant turtles and all other extinct taxa that are more closely related to them than they are to other reptiles".<ref name=GKT88>{{cite book |last1=Gauthier |first1=J. A. |last2=Kluge |first2=A. G. |last3= Rowe |first3=T. |year=1988 |chapter=The early evolution of the Amniota |title=The Phylogeny and Classification of the Tetrapods |volume=1 |editor-last=Benton |editor-first=M. J. |publisher=Clarendon Press |location=Oxford |isbn=978-0198577058 |pages=103–155}}</ref>

This definition explicitly includes turtles in Anapsida; because the phylogenetic placement of turtles within Amniota is very uncertain, it is unclear what taxa, other than turtles themselves, would be included in such defined Anapsida, and whether its content would be similar to the Anapsida of tradition. Indeed, Gauthier, Kluge and Rowe (1988) themselves included only turtles and [[Captorhinidae]] in their Anapsida, while excluding the majority of anapsids in the traditional sense of the word from it.<ref name=GKT88/>