Dinopedia
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Megalosaurus by cisiopurple-dcjxiyu

Illustration by Cisiopurple

A wastebasket taxon is any taxon to which numerous unrelated (or distantly related) genera have been assigned. Wastebasket taxa are inherently polyphyletic, in that, by definition, they include a wide range of loosely related genera. Notable examples of former wastebasket taxa are Megalosaurus, "Titanosaurus" (which is dubious), and the "Rauisuchia".

Criteria[]

To be considered a wastebasket taxon, a genus or clade must have two or more unrelated taxa lumped into it based on gross morphology or stratigraphy. In lieu of a better understanding of a clade's taxonomy, wastebasket taxa may well consist of numerous unrelated genera: for instance, Megalosaurus formerly included Carcharodontosaurus, Dilophosaurus, Magnosaurus, Metriacanthosaurus, and even the fragmentary crocodylomorph Aggiosuchus.

The wastebasket taxon isn't restricted to just the genus level, though. Famous clades like Carnosauria are very well known for having unknown large creatures lumped into it, before their later reclassification; it now represents all theropods more closely related to Allosaurus than to modern birds. Similarly, Ceratosauria formerly included coelophysids and Dilophosaurus, though they are in actuality far more basal.

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