Menu Close

Is a dinosaur a reptile?

Is a dinosaur a reptile?

Dinosaurs are a group of reptiles that dominated the land for over 140 million years (more than 160 million years in some parts of the world). They evolved diverse shapes and sizes, from the fearsome giant Spinosaurus to the chicken-sized Microraptor, and were able to survive in a variety of ecosystems.

What group does a Tyrannosaurus Rex belong to?

tyrannosaurids
Like other tyrannosaurids, Tyrannosaurus was a bipedal carnivore with a massive skull balanced by a long, heavy tail….Tyrannosaurus.

Tyrannosaurus Temporal range: Late Cretaceous (Maastrichtian),
Clade: Saurischia
Clade: Theropoda
Family: †Tyrannosauridae
Subfamily: †Tyrannosaurinae

What makes a dinosaur a reptile?

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 are dinosaurs not reptiles?

The main possibilities are that: Dinosaurs were cold-blooded, like modern reptiles, except that the large size of many would have stabilized their body temperatures. They were warm-blooded, more like modern mammals or birds than modern reptiles.

Is Tyrannosaurus a Carnosaur?

(The tyrannosaurs are considered to be members of Coelurosauria, not Carnosauria, despite their large size.) The carnosaurs lived during the late Jurassic Period and survived into the Cretaceous Period.

Are Tyrannosaurus and T. rex the same?

rex so much that some paleontologists think it may be a sister species in the Tyrannosaurus genus (Tyrannosaurus bataar). Whatever the case, at the end of the Cretaceous, Tarbosaurus was the apex predator in Asia, while T. rex was the apex predator in Laramidia.

Are chickens really dinosaurs?

“Chickens are dinosaurs.” Pretty much every evolutionary biologist and paleontologist worth their salt long ago came to the conclusion that birds are descended directly from dinosaurs. Today it has become generally accepted by scientists that birds are not descended from dinosaurs, but, in fact, are dinosaurs.

What dinosaurs still exist today?

Other than birds, however, there is no scientific evidence that any dinosaurs, such as Tyrannosaurus, Velociraptor, Apatosaurus, Stegosaurus, or Triceratops, are still alive. These, and all other non-avian dinosaurs became extinct at least 65 million years ago at the end of the Cretaceous Period.

What is the meaning of the word Tyrannosaurus?

The name Tyrannosaurus rex comes from the Greek words tyranno (“tyrant”) and saurus (“lizard”) and the Latin word rex (“king”). So, Tyrannosaurus rex means something like “king of the tyrant lizards.” It is commonly called T. rex for short.