members of this kingdom, as are certain extant forms such as Amish buggies, Japanese rickshaws, and the more widely dispersed bicycles. As one would expect, the prokarriageotic specimens are comparatively primitive in the entire range of features.
B. Kingdom Eukarriageota includes all carriages that are autolocomotes, that is, those which are self-propelled. These more advanced carriages appear later in the fossil record, starting with the so-called ``Cambrian Auto Explosion,'' and they ultimately become not only far more sophisticated, but much more numerous and diverse than their prokarriageotic counterparts.
It is obvious that the eukarriageotes have evolved from the procarriageotes. No one questions this fact, except for a few religious Fundamentalists who invoke common design. The oldest, most primitive eukarriageotic autolocomotes look strikingly similar to the prokarriageotic heterolocomotes, except for their primitive little engines and drive trains. These, it is agreed, must have arisen by some sort of endosymbiotic association of several ancient heterolocomotes. The fossil record clearly reveals a steady progression and proliferation of increasingly complex and sophisticated eukarriageotic autolocomotes. Although a fair number of representative prokarriageotic heterolocomotes are still extant today, these have not evolved significantly since ancient times, but are strikingly similar to their oldest ancestors. On this much all carriage taxonomists and paleocarriageologists can agree.
Major Phyla of Eukarriageota:
A. Phylum Windmillophyta (c 1472-1714, all now extinct)
B. Phylum Clockworkophyta (c 1748, rare, now extinct)
C. Phylum Airpressureophyta (18th cen., now extinct)
D. Phylum Steamolophyta (earliest fossil, 1678, from China, but is disputed; very prolific at beginning of 20th cen., but now extinct)
E. Phylum Electrolophyta (also very prolific early 20th cen.; now extinct)
F. Phylum Gasolinolophyta (most recent and most phylogenetically advanced of all carriages; dominates the landscape today, but not until modern times: at beginning of 20th cen. numerous bizarre species [now extinct] of Phylum Steamolophyta and Electrolophyta dominated, with Phylum Gasolinolophyta in minority)
Proposed Criteria for Basing Phylogenies:
The following is only a small sampling of the numerous proposals in the paleocarriage literature.
A. Number of wheels: It has long been recognized that three-wheeled carriages are typically more primitive than four-wheeled carriages. For example, the earliest fossil of a steam powered carriage (Phylum Steamolophyta) was a tricycle, the Nicholas-Joseph Cugnot, 1769. Likewise many early species in Gasolinolophyta, e.g., genus Benz, all species from 1885-1890. The problems with this criterion, however, are serious. (1) There are numerous two-wheeled autolocomotes extant today that are very sophisticated and evolutionarily advanced, e.g., the species Harley davidson, and numerous others, in the family Motorocyclidae. Yet it is generally assumed that the two-wheeled species must be more primitive than either three- or four-wheeled species. (2) To further complicate matters, the vast majority of the markedly primitive heterolocomotes in Kingdom Prokarriageota are four-wheeled (most of the simplest and oldest wagons)!
B. Open versus Closed Carriages: Another general assumption often seen in the literature is that an open carriage (with no roof, no or few windows, etc.) is a primitive condition, and that closed carriages represent a major phyletic advance. The problem here is that some members of Kingdom Prokarriageota, both extinct and extant, were or are closed (e.g., covered wagons, royal coaches of several cultures), and some modern carriages are open (e.g., subspecies convertibilis can be found in many if not most extant classes of Phylum Gasolinolophyta, especially in the family Sportscaridae.
C. Number of cylinders: It has also been proposed that an increasing number of cylinders would be a useful criterion for working out phyletic relationships within Phylum Gasolinolophyta. This view has be