Cryptoclidia is a clade of plesiosaurs. Cryptoclidia was named and defined as a node clade in 2010 by

Hilary Ketchum Hilary or Hillary may refer to: * Hillary Clinton, American politician * Hillary Coast, Antarctica * Hilary (name), or Hilarie or Hillary, a given name and surname * Hilary term, the spring term at the Universities of Oxford and Dublin * '' Hi ...

and

Roger Benson Roger is a given name, usually masculine, and a surname. The given name is derived from the Old French personal names ' and '. These names are of Germanic origin, derived from the elements ', ''χrōþi'' ("fame", "renown", "honour") and ', ' ( ...

: the group consisting of the

last common ancestor In biology and genetic genealogy, the most recent common ancestor (MRCA), also known as the last common ancestor (LCA) or concestor, of a set of organisms is the most recent individual from which all the organisms of the set are descended. The ...

of ''

Cryptoclidus ''Cryptoclidus'' ( ) is a genus of plesiosaur reptile from the Middle Jurassic Period (geology), period of England, France, and Cuba. Discovery ''Cryptoclidus'' was a plesiosaur whose specimens include adult and juvenile skeletons, and remai ...

eurymerus'' and ''

Polycotylus ''Polycotylus'' is a genus of plesiosaur within the family (biology), family Polycotylidae. The type species is ''P. latippinis'' and was named by American paleontologist Edward Drinker Cope in 1869. Eleven other species have been identified. The ...

latipinnis''; and all its descendants. The following

cladogram A cladogram (from Greek ''clados'' "branch" and ''gramma'' "character") is a diagram used in cladistics to show relations among organisms. A cladogram is not, however, an evolutionary tree because it does not show how ancestors are related to ...

follows an analysis by Benson & Druckenmiller (2014).

References

Plesiosaurs {{plesiosaur-stub