I’ve gone my entire life being told “that’s not a dinosaur that’s a (insert what it is) but why? What’s makes one giant lizard a Dinosaur but a different giant reptile not a dinosaur?
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You’ve probably heard of the tree of life. Evolution works by starting at the bottom of the tree and groups continually branch off from each other. There are now many groups of every kind of life. Dinosaurs are just one group of reptiles and there were other groups of reptiles that lived at the same time just like there are different groups of reptiles alive today.
As scientists have studied the tree of life, they have discovered a few interesting things about where dinosaurs fit into the tree of life. Birds actually evolved from dinosaurs and survived the extinctions which killed all of the rest of the dinosaurs. They also learned that crocodillians are the next closest living relative to dinosaurs. Dinosaurs are actually not even lizards. Lizards are a different group of reptiles. The group of reptiles that both crocodillians and dinosaurs are a part of is called archosaurs.
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