Comment on German Dinosaurs

Kolanaki@yiffit.net ⁨5⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

• bstix@feddit.dk ⁨5⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

  No, dinosaurs can’t fly.

  Flying 'saurs are “pterosaurs”

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  • negativenull@lemmy.world ⁨5⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

    Birds originated in the Jurassic, and could (can) fly. Some dinosaurs could fly. Pterosaurs are lizards, who also could fly.

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  • Swedneck@discuss.tchncs.de ⁨5⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

    most dinosaurs can fly, since all living dinosaurs are birds and those very famously tend to fly quite a lot.

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• lugal@sopuli.xyz ⁨5⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

  They are the direct sister group. It’s kind of a definition thing. People defined dinosaurs before pterosaurs were known so they were not included

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  • Swedneck@discuss.tchncs.de ⁨5⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

    it’s not really a definition thing as such, “dinosaur” just means anything descended from a specific point on the tree of life.
    Image

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    • lugal@sopuli.xyz ⁨5⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

      Yes, dinosaurs are defined as all descents of the last common ancestor of [blank] and [blank].

      I don’t remember what the blanks were but I’m sure they would have included pterosaurs if they knew about them back than

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      • Swedneck@discuss.tchncs.de ⁨5⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

        no, that’s not how cladistics works…

        as you can see from the diagram, pterosaurs are not descended from the stem-dinosaurs, thus they cannot be dinosaurs any more than birds could be mammals.

        simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cladistics

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• bjoern_tantau@swg-empire.de ⁨5⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

  Saurus but not dinosaurs I think.

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