Mary's Monday Metazoan: Do you still think they aren't dinosaurs?

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Is it true that birds are the closest relatives to dinosaurs? What ever happened to the reptile idea?

By Louie-Pieter (not verified) on 13 Apr 2015 #permalink

Is it true that birds are the closest relatives to dinosaurs? What ever happened to the reptile idea?

U14206022

By Louie-Pieter (not verified) on 13 Apr 2015 #permalink

Well,there is no enough evidence to prove that birds evolved from theropod dinosaurs as far as I know.

By Boysana Ramalo… (not verified) on 14 Apr 2015 #permalink

Thank you for noticing us, we really appreciate it.

By Tracy 13167482 (not verified) on 14 Apr 2015 #permalink

oh sorry about that. well according to Dr. Jacques Gauthier, during his time as a graduate student of Professor Kevin Padian here at Berkeley, did his dissertation research on this subject, creating the first well accepted, detailed phylogeny of the diapsids. His work provided strong, compelling support for the theory that birds are theropod dinosaurs.

By Tracy 13167482 (not verified) on 14 Apr 2015 #permalink

It has not yet been proven that birds are the closest relatives to dinosaurs, though some birds have the same resemblances as other dinosaurs like the ostrich,they both lay eggs with similar eggshells, elongated arms etc. If it happens that its true that birds are the closest relatives to dinosaurs that would be a major change in our knowledge of evolution of species. 15215319

By Remofilwe Kwati (not verified) on 15 Apr 2015 #permalink

@-Remofilwe Kwati
"If it happens that its true that birds are the closest relatives to dinosaurs that would be a major change in our knowledge of evolution of species. "

Why?

Dinosaurs and birds obviously share a common ancestor. Unless you have a stronger candidate for 'closest relative to dinosaurs' I fail to see why considering birds and dinosaurs to be close relatives is a 'major change' to our knowledge of evolution.

Birds are dinosaurs closest living relatives.
Crocs are their direct descendents. (?!)

@Izen:
Like Pterosaurs, Crocs are not Dinosaurs, nor are they Dinosaur decendents.

Dinosaurs, Pterosaurs and Crocodiles all came from Archosaurs but are separate. So Crocs are more like Dinosaurs cousins.

Birds on the other hand... http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Evolution_of_birds#Origins ...there is quite significant evidence, that birds are in fact maniraptora, this means they are theropods, this means they are dinosaurs.

Are birds the closest relative to dinosaurs?
(u15093702)

LEAVE HAPPYFEET ALONE!!

@Louie-Pieter
A branch of reptiles are the archosaurs, a branch of the archosaurs are the dinosaurs, and a branch of the dinosaurs are the birds.

I think they are related to the dinosaurs because most of the birds are related to them

By musawenkosi ma… (not verified) on 16 Apr 2015 #permalink

I don't think the evolution of one species to a new one is possible. I think each species were created as they are today. (I do think evolution through natural selection is possible though).
And I think dinosaurs still exists today. Take a look at crocodiles, they have all the properties of dinosaurs as we know them in pictures. And dinosaurs still exists as lizards. So no, birds are not dinosaurs.

By Stefan Koning … (not verified) on 16 Apr 2015 #permalink

I also agree I don't think birds are dinosaurs but it is really interesting to see how genes can evolve from one species to another over time. They could share a common ancestor since they do have some similar characteristics.

By Z Manzini (u15… (not verified) on 16 Apr 2015 #permalink

It is well known that the crocodile is said to be related to dinosaurs, but birds have certain characteristics such as behavior which is similar to that of the dinosaurs, therefore it can be argued that they are related.

(u14022827)

By Marilyn McDerm… (not verified) on 16 Apr 2015 #permalink

I think each species were created as they are today.

Stefan Koning, how might that have happened? It seems pretty clear that adaptation and evolution is occurring today, and we have some interesting examples to look at. Have you heard of drug-resistant bacteria?

I do not think birds are dinosaurs, however we cannot assume that all creatures as we see them today were in that same image thousands of years ago.Something had to have changed from the fossils scientists have discovered so far,to the creatures we find on earth today. When one learns about evolution and how organisms evolve over time, we can see that the earliest animal to fly was during the time of the dinosaurs ,so surely a common ancestor is involved?

they don`t look like dinosaurs, what makes you say that?

By Brian Mahlangu (not verified) on 17 Apr 2015 #permalink

No ,now I believe that also birds evolved from dinosaur.

By u15058052 (not verified) on 18 Apr 2015 #permalink

It seems that animals might have evolved due to different reasons like: climate, location, interbreeding, etc.

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By Sthembiso Makofane (not verified) on 18 Apr 2015 #permalink

What a scary looking penguin! I thought penguins were meant to be cute and fluffy! In my opinion, this bird looks very much like it could star in Jurasic park. I think they could be related to dinosaurs, because sharks are very close to dinosaurs, and penguins live in the sea as well.

u14121078

Birds are descended from dinosaurs, because of the evidence from Archaeopterix but i don't believe that they are dinosaurs but the title could be ambiguous.

i don't think birds are descended from dinosaurs i think think every as been created as they toda.if not why animals that we have nowadays didn't evolve to new species of animal.

By sinon Mohavia(… (not verified) on 18 Apr 2015 #permalink

If birds really evolved from dinosaurs, why then are there tons of millions of different bird species?

By Chiangjieh ARM (not verified) on 18 Apr 2015 #permalink

lol...science and baseless stuffs again.

I thought everyone knew about this.

Birds are considered to be from the therapod line of dinosaurs. As a result, many dinosaur traits will be evident in their behaviour and their habitual patterns, such as migrating to the north and then later returning to the south, as according to Dr Harry Levin. Does this mean that if this can be adequately proven, then more insight into dinosaurs can be obtained by inference?
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By Regomoditswe Pilane (not verified) on 18 Apr 2015 #permalink

I do believe that along the lineage they surely must share a common ancestor. I don't however think they should be classified as dinosaurs. according to evolution we share a common ancestor with gorillas but we cannot be called gorillas

By u15084656 (not verified) on 19 Apr 2015 #permalink

I agree. birds evolved from dinosaurs so they must share a common ancestor.

That's an interesting theory, i guess you learn something new everyday.

By Pozisa-15147462 (not verified) on 19 Apr 2015 #permalink

It is said that birds evolve from dinosaurs which are related to theropod even though there's is no much information about how they evolved.

Lol this is not science it doesn't prove anything , i just see an ugly mouth of a penguin nothing near to dinosaur.

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