In 2017, Arbour and Evans placed Zuul within the Ankylosauridae, based on a phylogenetic analysis.
More specifically, they identified it as an ankylosaurin ankylosaurine ankylosaurid, forming a clade with Ankylosaurus, Anodontosaurus, Dyoplosaurus and Scolosaurus.
Although the consensus of the phylogenetic trees recovered by the analysis was inconclusive regarding the interrelationships of ankylosaurins, this was influenced mainly by the relative placements of Anodontosaurus and Ziapelta within the tree.
Out of the ten most parsimonious trees they recovered, nine of them have Zuul as the sister group of Dyoplosaurus, while in the remaining tree Zuul is closer to Anodontosaurus.
The consensus of 50% of the trees is reproduced below for ankylosaurin interrelationships; the remainder follows the full consensus of all of the trees.
In 2017, Arbour and Evans placed Zuul within the Ankylosauridae, based on a phylogenetic analysis. More specifically, they identified it as an ankylosaurin ankylosaurine ankylosaurid, forming a clade with Ankylosaurus, Anodontosaurus, Dyoplosaurus and Scolosaurus. Although the consensus of the phylogenetic trees recovered by the analysis was inconclusive regarding the interrelationships of ankylosaurins, this was influenced mainly by the relative placements of Anodontosaurus and Ziapelta within the tree. Out of the ten most parsimonious trees they recovered, nine of them have Zuul as the sister group of Dyoplosaurus, while in the remaining tree Zuul is closer to Anodontosaurus. The consensus of 50% of the trees is reproduced below for ankylosaurin interrelationships; the remainder follows the full consensus of all of the trees.
Zuul