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submitted 3 months ago* (last edited 3 months ago) by Neurologist@mander.xyz to c/science_memes@mander.xyz

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If you’re confused: Birds are dinosaurs, crocodiles aren’t; note the “closest living relatives”

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[-] vk6flab@lemmy.radio 5 points 3 months ago

Forgive my ignorance on the subject, but huh?

Clearly I missed a briefing somewhere. I thought that crocodiles were from that era, or is that the joke that I'm somehow missing?

[-] teletext@reddthat.com 32 points 3 months ago

The joke is that birds aren't only related to dinos, but are dinos themselves.

[-] jadelord@discuss.tchncs.de 22 points 3 months ago

Yes and the cruel part is... Pterosaurs are not Dinosaurs!

[-] CodexArcanum@lemmy.world 6 points 3 months ago

It might be easy to brush off my complaint as a case of paleo-pedantry, but word choice matters. "Dinosaur" is a word for a specific group of creatures united by shared characteristics and which had their own evolutionary history—it is not a catch-all term for anything reptilian and prehistoric.