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submitted 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago) by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

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

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[–] [email protected] 3 points 11 months ago (1 children)

This is dumb as rocks

The most charitable interpretation is “well crocodiles didn’t change in the last 100 million years but birds did so that means maybe crocs are closer since birds evolved to get farther away”

That’s dumb because both birds and crocodiles have been changing the whole time. Just because crocs look more similar to their fossils, doesn’t mean they haven’t been evolving/drifting/etc.

Same thing any time someone talks about “sharks haven’t changed”. It’s dumb.

This is some dunning Kruger shit.

[–] [email protected] 16 points 11 months ago

It has nothing to do with if the said animal were evolving or not. Birds and Crocodilians are the only living animals of the Archosauria clade. Since birds are dinosaurs, technically they aren't their relatives. So Crocs are the closest living relatives of dinosaurs (and birds), since they belong in the same clade and shared a common ancestor more recent than anyone else alive.