Flagellicaudata
# Flagellicaudata

Flagellicaudata is a clade of Dinosauria. It belongs to Sauropoda and includes two families, the Dicraeosauridae and the Diplodocidae.

## Phylogeny

The clade Flagellicaudata was erected by Harris and Dodson (2004) for the diplodocoid clade formed by Dicraeosauridae and Diplodocidae in their paper describing a new genus of sauropod dinosaur, Suuwassea. The authors carried out a phylogenetic analysis and noted that Suuwassea, although more derived than Rebbachisauridae, is in a trichotomy with other families belonging to Diplodocoidea (Diplodocidae and Dicraeosauridae). Flagellicaudata was defined as a node-based clade consisting of the most recent common ancestor of Dicraeosaurus and Diplodocus and all of its descendants. The word "Flagellicaudata" refers to long, whip-like tails of that animals (flagellum is a Latin word meaning "whip" and cauda means in Latin "tail").

Fragment of cladogram presented in Harris and Dodson, 2004:

