eli5: Why are pterosaurs not considered dinosaurs?

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eli5: Why are pterosaurs not considered dinosaurs?

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Anonymous 0 Comments

Dinosaur was originally a term for all big lizard-like creatures found in ancient fossils.

Eventually scientists got more information about the fossils and made more scientific categorizations. The term dinosaur was made a scientific term but only applied to some of them. And pterosaurs are not in the group that was named dinosaurs.

This is similar to how koalas are sometimes called koala bears because they resemble bears but they are not actually bears.

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