All dinosaurs are birds
All birds are dinosaurs
All dinosaurs are birds
All birds are dinosaurs
In evolutionary taxonomy, reptiles are gathered together under the class Reptilia (/rɛpˈtɪliə/rep-TIL-ee-ə), which corresponds to common usage. Modern cladistic taxonomyregards that group as paraphyletic, since genetic and paleontological evidence has determined that crocodilians are more closely related to birds (class Aves), members of Dinosauria, than to other living reptiles, and thus birds are nested among reptiles from a phylogenetic perspective. Many cladistic systems therefore redefine Reptilia as a clade (monophyletic group) including birds, though the precise definition of this clade varies between authors.
Birds are reptiles in the same sense that people are fish.
usually, in biology we use monophyletic groupings, like all descendants of rodents will always be rodents.
however, those terms "lizard/fish" are not monophyletic, because otherwise all vertebrates would be fish. those are paraphyletic (group includes some descendants of a common ancestors).
there are already polyphyletic, where we have descendants of multiple sources, ie, Herbivores would be polyphyletic.
The fundamental problem is that cladistic terms will kind of inevitably become general descriptors of any lifeform that looks/behaves similarly, which is immediately clear when you look at any scifi/fantasy stuff.
If an alien animal fills the same niche as salmon do on earth, then we're gonna call it a salmon, and poof suddenly it's no longer monophyletic.
it would be a Venusian salmon. same way we have birds and animals with the same name across continents. An Indian porcupine is not related to an American porcupine, but "Indian porcupine" is still monophyletic, and just saying "porcupine" is more informal, though technically paraphyletic.
We actually do informal cladistics. " fox " isn't a species but a genus "common fox" is Vulpez vulpez which is a species, while fox refers to all the genus.
This meme had strong Clint's repiles vibes until it was etymologically wrong in the third row
This is why I love science memes - daily new information presented in an enjoyable format that I know I can one hundred percent trust because science.
humans are also reptiles!
Do birds have more brain myelination than reptiles? How do the compare to mammals?
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