https://www.livescience.com/animals/birds/are-birds-reptiles What do you think? Are we getting closer to accepting the genetic evidence as grounds for reclassification?

I disagree that this is always the case. maybe in some high-profile examples this happens, such as some of the vertebrate divisions being discussed in this topic, but in no way applies to all or even the majority of groups. one thing that’s useful about molecular evidence is that it’s less continge…

wdYm by that? You say I’m wrong but then you say that birds are descended from dinosaurs? Are you saying that reptiles are not descended from dinosaurs because…they branched off before dinosaurs? And your language - “older”, “same age” - it sounds like you’re saying they lived at the same time. Do y…

I agree that there is no frame of reference with which to answer the question about how to identify something primarily known from bone morphology. I like to imagine there would have been traits to distinguish synapsids from sauropsids, but for so many things it’s only elapsed time that eventually l…

had they refused to remove his name from the journal, perhaps they could have renamed it “Copeium” instead

You say I’m wrong but then you say that birds are descended from dinosaurs? Are you saying that reptiles are not descended from dinosaurs because…they branched off before dinosaurs? You have a little bit of a misunderstanding about reptiles and dinosaurs. Yes, birds are directly descended from di…

Just to add on to this as a tiny correction to hopefully not confuse anyone in the future: “Mammal-like reptiles” is a highly outdated description of synapsids because they were not reptiles, even if morphologically similar. Synapsids have a single temporal fenestra in their skull, while diapsids(es…

Well, most of them likely had fur.

So lots of room for disagreement of terms. Great to have people tell me I’m wrong and don’t understand what he understands. Must be nice to be right about everything.

Which I think is the best way of understanding the issue. As long as it’s understood that technically birds are reptiles, there’s no reason in application to treat them like reptiles. Hence herpetology being non-avian reptiles and amphibians etc.

Are birds really reptiles?

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Are birds really reptiles?

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