Pareiasauromorpha
Pareiasauromorpha is a group of parareptilian amniotes from the Permian. It includes genera found all over the world, with many genera from Asia and South Africa. The clade was first used as a group by Linda A. Tsuji in 2011, in order to group the family Nycteroleteridae and the superfamily Pareiasauroidea. Pareiasauromorpha is considered to be a monophyletic node, the sister group to procolophonoids.
Classification
Pareiasauromorpha was first used to define a group of parareptilians in 2011 by Linda A. Tsuji. The next year, Tsuji and her colleagues used Pareiasauromorpha as a node inside Procolophonia. In their 2012 publication, Tsuji et al. defined it as a monophyletic node containing "nycteroleters" and "pareiasaurs".Nycteroleteridae
Nycteroleteridae is a family, commonly called "nycteroleters", classified in Pareiasauromorpha. The group includes the genera Emeroleter, Nycteroleter, Bashykroleter, Rhipaeosaurus, Macroleter, and "Bashykroleter" mesensis. The genus Tokosaurus is often classified as the sister taxon to Macroleter, but is actually more likely a juvenile of the later. Bashykroleter, including both species, is now considered paraphyletic, as "B." mesensis is more closely related to other genera than the type species B. bashkyricus.Pareiasauroidea
Pareiasauroidea is a superfamily, called "pareiasaurs", that is classified as the sister group to "nycteroleters". It includes many genera, and in some classifications, is grouped with Macroleter as the most basal member, or the sister taxon, with Macroleter outside of Nycteroleteridae. Apart from the possible genus Macroleter, the species "Bradysaurus" seeleyi is often classified outside its genus as the most primitive species, with the genus also classified as basal.Phylogeny
The cladogram below was found in 2011 by Tsuji, and modified in 2012 by Tsuji et al.:File:Bradysaurus baini.jpg|thumb|Mounted skeleton of Bradysaurus, also a pareiasaur, Natural [History Museum, Berlin|Berlin's Natural History Museum]
A later study of parareptilian relationships published by Cisneros et al. recovered a diphyletic Lanthanosuchoidea, with Lanthanosuchus nested within Pareiasauromorpha: