Emulating your elders This little guy has big aspirations! Simba as I have named him (Pride Rock any

Emulating your eldersThis little guy has big aspirations! Simba as I have named him (Pride Rock anyone?) is one of many Eastern Water Dragons that run around Australia Zoo and just like their mythological namesake, are reptiles. The same too can be said for the big fella now acting as a sunbed, in fact the word Dinosaur was originally derived as fearfully-great lizard.While both are reptiles, they are not closely related. The 2 organisms are part of separate groups that emerged during the Permian/Triassic:1) Archosauromorpha, which includes Dinosaurs and Crocodylia 2) Lepidosauromorpha, which includes all modern lizards.In fact, modern birds have more in common with dinosaurs than any modern lizard. It is now commonly excepted that birds evolved within the theropod group of dinosaurs, reaching what would be considered a modern bird during the Cretaceous. Perhaps then a pigeon resting on our replica t-rex would be more accurate! There are however, more interesting deductions to be made using taxonomy (the science of the classification of organisms).In classic taxonomy, birds were put into a separate grouping to dinosaurs, a completely separate class of organism. However, in recent decades a new system of classification has been adopted; Phylogenetic taxonomy. Phylogenetic taxonomy focuses on the evolutionary relationships between organisms, rather than just common morphologies. Using phylogenetics, birds did not just evolve from dinosaurs but rather birds are the last remaining member of the dinosaurs; Dinosaurs are not extinct!!The relationship is shown below with Dinosauria being the largest, most general classification. The groups become smaller and more specialised as the classification progresses.Dinosauria\ Saurischia\ Theropoda\ Coelurosauria\ Maniraptora\ Avialae (Birds)Taxonomy is a complex science especially when only having fossils to classify and there are various methods of classification. Different classifications are often used depending on what relationships are trying to be examined. It is often beneficial to group organisms with similar morphologies into the same group (Birds, Mammals etc) rather than by evolutionary relationship and I will leave you with this thought.Phylogenetic taxonomy shows that birds are descended from reptiles, so are technically reptiles themselves. Mammals evolved from reptiles during the same era.You are a reptile.RJWImage Credit – Taken at Australia zoo, Queensland by RJWFurther Reading:Dinosaur Misconceptions - http://s.si.edu/1UvJGETWhat is Taxonomy - http://bit.ly/1Zi3Ul8 -- source link

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