Table of Contents
Would dinosaurs be considered reptiles?
Just as you thought, the quick answer is yes, dinosaurs are reptiles. After all, dinosaurs lived in the Mesozoic Era – the ‘Age of Reptiles’, they had scaly skin, they hatched from eggs, and even the word ‘dinosaur’ means ‘terrible lizard’ (lizards being a kind of reptile).
Why is it that we said a bird was more closely related to a crocodile than a crocodile is to a lizard?
(Crocodilians are actually more closely related to birds and dinosaurs than they are to other reptiles, i.e., lizards, snakes, and turtles.) The most likely reason for this relates to the relatively long time between generations in crocodilians, Green said.
Were dinosaurs hot blooded or cold blooded?
The diagram above shows energy usage in a number of animal groups, including birds, mammals, dinosaurs and modern reptiles. Dinosaurs were “mesotherms,” neither warm- nor cold-blooded, a new study finds.
Can an animal be both warm and cold blooded?
Although most endotherms appear “warm-blooded” and most ectotherms appear “cold-blooded,” some animals display characteristics of both groups. They are called heterotherms.
Are birds more closely related to crocodilians or lizards?
Birds are most closely related to crocodilians among living reptiles, for example, while snakes, lizards, and New Zealand’s tuatara form a natural group.
Why are crocodiles closely related to birds?
BUT birds and crocodilians are closest because they all belong to a group of life called the Archosauria. Crocodilians, pterosaurs, and dinosaurs (including birds) are all descended from common ancestors that lived probably around 250 million years ago.
Why can’t reptiles regulate temperature?
Reptiles need to thermoregulate because they cannot maintain their body temperature by producing metabolic heat. They rely on external conditions to regulate the temperature of their bodies.
Were some reptiles endothermic in the Mesozoic?
Since both the mammal and avian classes share reptilian ancestors, it has been proposed that some reptiles were in fact endothermic, and that endothermy evolved during the Mesozoic on more than one occasion. Todays evidence suggests that endothermy was present in Mesozoic archosaurs, the ancestors of modern birds, though it is still in discussion.
Are crocodiles endothermic or ectothermic?
We all know that crocodiles and other extant reptiles are ectotherms, warming their bodies by basking in the sun, then cooling off in the water. But a new hypothesis suggests that modern crocodilians are descended from warm-blooded (endothermic) animals and secondarily reevolved ectothermy.
Did endothermy ever evolve?
The evidence is beginning to show that endothermy has evolved on mulitple occasions, most obviously during the evolution of mammals, and again somewhere within the close ancestry of both birds and crocodilians.
Are Cowles’s lizards endothermic or ectothermic?
Cowles’s lizards, apparently, were ectothermic. The fascination with reptiles for studying the evolution of endothermy continued.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dLqBAXNUT3k