Chickens are constantly called living dinosaurs. Why aren’t Bats, Snakes, Apes ,Turtles…mostly all animals called living dinosaurs if there were versions of that same animal walking the earth millions of years ago?

Question

Chickens are constantly called living dinosaurs. Why aren’t Bats, Snakes, Apes ,Turtles…mostly all animals called living dinosaurs if there were versions of that same animal walking the earth millions of years ago?

In: Biology

Answer 1

Because birds are theropods, a type of dinosaur.

Bats are mammals, not dinosaurs. Apes are mammals too.

Turtles are anapsids.

Snakes are diapsids and so are birds. However, they are separate subcategories of diapsid. Birds are just the only extant animals within the dinosaur subcategory.