 Many of the earliest molecular studies typically supported established phylogenies, e.g., Margoliash (1963) discusses the evolution of cytochrome c, though simply presumes the received phylogeny of species as correct. Later, Fitch &amp; Margoliash (1967) construct a phylogeny solely from the cytochrome c data, primarily to demonstrate molecular phylogenetic methods and how to test the reliability of results. Interestingly, one of the “anomalies” they mention is that turtles are placed closer to birds than to snakes—but this turns out to be no anomaly! The vast majority of molecular studies have since placed the turtles as a sister group to the archosaurs (a group which includes the birds and the crocodiles) including the largest genome-scale studies done to date (Crawford et al. 2015).