pointlesslypointing: a-dinosaur-a-day: shadybacon:a-dinosaur-a-day:shadybacon:a-dinosaur-a-day
pointlesslypointing: a-dinosaur-a-day: shadybacon: a-dinosaur-a-day: shadybacon: a-dinosaur-a-day: aquaticpaleo: harmalite: CLADISTICS ruined my life yall joke but this is actually a serious conundrun with cladistic-based classification The choice is this: Birds are reptiles Or crocodilians (and probably turtles) ARENT That’s it, that’s the choice What ifBird and reptiles are two different thingsthat came from the same thing Nope Because you can’t group (lizards, snakes, tuatara, turtles, crocodilians) without also including (birds) So if you don’t want to include birds in reptiles then you have to leave out some things we’ve called reptiles birds are dinosaurs though, full stop. we’ve already defined what a dinosaur is and it includes birds. but reptiles isn’t really defined so much as thrown against a wall angrily. But don’t turtles and alligators have more in common with modern reptiles than modern birds have in common with modern reptiles?I’m not trying to contradict, I’m trying to understand. Mammals and reptiles have a common ancestor as well, but we do not make them the same group. It’s not about having things in common. It’s about common ancestry, which is how we classify animals in light of extinct species, which defy trait-based classification. And, the common ancestor of [lizards, snakes, tuatara, turtles, crocodilians] by definition is also the common ancestor of birds. It is NOT the common ancestor of mammals. So, either we decide that Tuatara Lizards and Snakes are the only reptiles, or we include birds as reptiles. Or we just decide reptiles are no longer a thing. Hear me out: birds are fish. Mammals are fish. Reptiles are fish. Amphibians are fish. Fish are fish. Crayfish are not fish. Sharks are not fish. -- source link