Re: [dinosaur] Why birds are living dinosaurs

[Paul P <turtlecroc@yahoo.com>]

By question, I assume you mean: "[Why] Are birds dinosaurs?"

I would answer simply by saying that "birds are (probably) dinosaurs in the 
same way that bats are mammals." Bats certainly are mammals, and birds are 
probably dinosaurs. The best cladistics indicate that they are. 

That said, when a bat flies by at night, you don't point and say, "Did you see 
that little mammal?!" You call it a bat. Hence birds are birds, and the only 
reason to refer to them as dinosaurs is to rub it someone's face that your 
cladistic analysis was (probably) better than someone else's.


On Monday, April 12, 2021, 01:45:03 AM CDT, Poekilopleuron 
<dinosaurtom2015@seznam.cz> wrote:

Good day!
If you were to answer this question, how would you put it? Because birds 
evolved directly from the dinosaurian ancestors? Because they still carry the 
dinosaur genetic heritage? Because they are in fact a specialised group of 
living maniraptoran theropods? I've heard some people say ignorant things like 
"birds can not be dinosaurs, because they are so different, mostly very small 
and there is no way that such an agile warmblooded insulated animal could be a 
descendant of something like T. rex".

Thank you for your thoughts! Tom