Re: dinos and birds

[Mickey Mortimer <Mickey_Mortimer111@msn.com>]

pheret wrote-

> i know that my bird has eyelashes which are not feathers.  are there
> lizards with eyelashes?

The eyelashes of birds are feathers (Brush, 2000), just like our eyelashes
are hairs.

Brush, 2000. Evolving a Protofeather and Feather Diversity. American
Zoologist. 40:631-639.

> can anyone suggest a good place i can get news on paleontology?

This list is the best source I know.

Dora Smith wrote-

> Oh, alright.   I'm not sure about the scheme of division, though.

The problem is we don't know exactly what turtles are related to.  And since
turtles have to be reptiles, if they turn out to be closely related to
parareptiles, the latter are subsequently made reptiles as well.  But the
scheme of division is basically-

Parareptilia / Anapsida / Progonosauria - reptiles more closely related to
turtles than to lizards and crocodiles
Eureptilia / Romeriida - reptiles more closely related to lizards and
crocodiles than to turtles

Reptilia
|--Parareptilia
|  |--turtles
|  `--pareiasaurs
`--Eureptilia
   |--Lepidosauromorpha - lizards, snakes, tuatara
   `--Archosauromorpha - crocodiles, dinosaurs, birds

or

Lepidosauromorpha - reptiles more closely related to lizards than to
crocodiles
Archosauromorpha - reptiles more closely related to crocodiles than to
lizards

Amniota
|--Parareptilia
|  `--pareiasaurs
`--Reptilia
   |--Lepidosauromorpha - lizards, snakes, tuatara, turtles?
   `--Archosauromorpha - crocodiles, dinosaurs, birds, turtles?

> Was Schleromochlus warm and fuzzy too?

Good question.  Most people would say no, but we lack any skin impressions.

Mickey Mortimer
Undergraduate, Earth and Space Sciences
University of Washington
The Theropod Database - http://students.washington.edu/eoraptor/Home.html