Setanta wrote:I believe that many scientists consider birds to be descended from dinosaurs, based on the internal structure of the bones--although i read that so very long ago that i don't recall the details. In a sense, dinosaurs are reptiles. Some systems of classification list them as Archosauria, however, Archosauria is defined as: Archosauria - a large subclass of diapsid reptiles including: crocodiles; alligators; dinosaurs; pterosaurs; plesiosaurs; ichthyosaurs; thecodonts. The word Archosauria is a modern construction, which combines the Greek words for ruler (arkhos in Roman characters) and lizard (sauros in Roman characters). So, it is accurate to say that dinosaurs are (or were) reptiles. They are a part of the sub-class of diapsid reptiles, and diapsid is defined as: Any of various reptiles having a skull with two pairs of temporal openings and including the lizards, snakes, crocodiles, dinosaurs, and pterosaurs.
Definitions courtesy of Answers-dot-com.
I think the definitions for dinosaur classification need to be updated based on more recent information.
First of all, there were a lot of different types of dinosaurs, and the term dinosaur itself is a fairly generic term which includes some very different animals.
Reptiles are always considered cold-blooded. Yet good evidence now suggests that at least some dinosaurs were warm-blooded. So based on the simplest of classification characteristics, those dinosaurs could not be classified as reptiles.
It's an interesting question however, which is probably better addressed by asking if a *particular* dinosaur was a reptile.
Took me a second to pick up on that. God, it's been a long week.
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