Dinosaur

What is a Dinosaur?
Dinosaurs are a diverse group of animals that were the dominant terrestrial vertebrates for over 160 million years, from the late Triassic period (about 230 million years ago) until the end of the Cretaceous (about 65 million years ago), when the Cretaceous Paleogene extinction event led to the extinction of all non-avian dinosaurs at the close of the Mesozoic era. The fossil record indicates that birds evolved within theropod dinosaurs during the Jurassic period. Some of them survived the CretaceousPaleogene extinction event, including the ancestors of all modern birds. Consequently, in modern classification systems, birds are considered a type of dinosaurthe only group which survived to the present day. Dinosaurs are a varied group of animals. Birds, at over 9,000 species, are the most diverse group of vertebrate besides perciform fish. Paleontologists have identified over 500 distinct genera and more than 1,000 different species of non-avian dinosaurs. Dinosaurs are represented on every continent by both extant species and fossil remains. Some are herbivorous, others carnivorous. Many dinosaurs have been bipedal, and many extinct groups were also quadrupedal, and some were able to shift between these body postures. Many species possess elaborate display structures such as horns or crests, and some prehistoric groups even developed skeletal modifications such as bony armor and spines. Avian dinosaurs have been the planet's dominant flying vertebrate since the extinction of the pterosaurs, and evidence suggests that all ancient dinosaurs built nests and laid eggs much as avian species do today. Although generally known for the large sizes of some groups, most Mesozoic dinosaurs were human-sized or smaller.

Where did the name come from?

The taxon Dinosauria was formally named in 1842 by Sir Richard Owen, who used it to refer to the "distinct tribe or sub-order of Saurian Reptiles" that were then being recognized in England and around the world. The term is derived from the Greek words (deinos meaning "terrible", "powerful", or "wondrous") and (sauros

meaning "lizard" or "reptile"). Though the taxonomic name has often been interpreted as a reference to dinosaurs' teeth, claws, and other fearsome characteristics, Owen intended it merely to evoke their size and majesty. Technically, dinosaurs can be distinguished from the other creatures descended from archosaurs (pterosaurs, the flying reptiles, and prehistoric crocodiles) by a handful on anatomical quirks.

In modern definition:Under phylogenetic taxonomy, dinosaurs are usually defined as the group consisting of "Triceratops, Neornithes [modern birds], their most recent common ancestor, and all descendants". It has also been suggested that Dinosauria be defined with respect to the MRCA of Megalosaurus and Iguanodon, because these were two of the three genera cited by Richard Owen when he recognized the Dinosauria. Both definitions result in the same set of animals being defined as dinosaurs, that is "Dinosauria = Ornithischia + Saurischia", which encompasses theropods ankylosaurians (armored herbivorous quadrupeds), stegosaurians (plated herbivorous quadrupeds), ceratopsians (herbivorous quadrupeds with horns and frills), ornithopods (bipedal or quadrupedal herbivores including "duck-bills"), and presumptuously, sauropodomorphs (mostly large herbivorous quadrupedswith long necks and tails). Many paleontologists note that the order in which sauropodomorphs and theropods diverged may omit sauropodomorphs from the definition for both saurischians and dinosaurs. To avoid the instability of Dinosauria, a more conservative definition of Dinosauria is defined with respect to four anchoring nodes:Triceratops horridus, Saltasaurus loricatus, and Passer domesticus, their most recent common ancestor, and all descendants. This "safer" definition can be expressed as "Dinosauria = Ornithischia + Sauropodomorpha + Theropoda". There is a wide consensus among paleontologists that birds are the descendants of theropod dinosaurs. Using the strict phylogenetic nomenclatural definition that all descendants of a single common ancestor must be included in a group for that group to be natural, birds would thus be dinosaurs and dinosaurs are, therefore, not extinct. Birds are classified by most paleontologists as belonging to the subgroup Maniraptora, which are coelurosaurs, which are theropods, which are saurischians, which are dinosaurs. From the point of view of cladistics, birds are dinosaurs, but in ordinary speech the word "dinosaur" does not include birds. Additionally, referring to dinosaurs

that are not birds as "non-avian dinosaurs" is cumbersome. For clarity, this article will use "dinosaur" as a synonym for "non-avian dinosaur". The term "non-avian dinosaur" will be used for emphasis as needed.