Reptile fossil

[Fuscus]

I thought dinosaur meant terrible lizard? Strange term for a bird.

The term Dinosaur does mean terrible lizard but it was created by Sir Richard Owen in 1842 ( http://www.ucmp.berkeley.edu/history/owen.html ), when they were just considered giant lizards.

 

[dobermanmick]

You guys make me feel stupid ! :lol:

 

[peterescue]

The first dinosaur was described in the early 19th century by Gideon Mantell. It was to be what we now call the iguanadon.
Own usurped most of Mantells lifes work as well as many others.("the history of everything"by Bill Bryson. a fun read.)(read it mick, you too can pretend to be learned and clever)
Dinosaurs fit into two Genera, ornithischians and saurishchians.
Bird hippped and lizard hipped. Steven Jay Gould like to paint T rex as a 10 tonne road runner. Nice thought.

 

[instar]

Im enjoying this one immensly

Turtles and crocs pose an intresting question, are they "dinosaurs" or not? given they have been around sevral million years, in almost the same form! Komodos too, have they always been exclusive to that small chain of islands? where did they originate? very dino like too imo

 

[Fuscus]

Komodos are just Varanus species that has been stranded on as island where conditions are right for gigantism, think of the chappell island tiger for a (poor) anology.
Reptiles, Dinosaur and mammals all evolved about the same time, but dinosaurs went on to dominate the large fauna biosphere while mammals stayed small and lived by being "invisible", much like rodents do today. That dinosaurs were able to out-compete mammal for so long is proberly the strongest evidence that they were warm blooded.
http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2002/04/0423_020425_firstmammal.html