Tuesday, June 12, 2012

Dinosaur Genealogy :)

Who doesn't love dinosaurs? :)  I'm trying to get the categorization of them straight in my head.

Dinos belong to a group called Archosaurs, which include crocodilians, birds, pterosaurs and dinosaurs.  Dinosaurs are divided into two groups: Ornithischians and Saurischians.  I will attempt to summarize, but here is a very helpful diagram to start off, and if you'd like a very good reference with more diagrams and tons of good information, go to the source of this diagram.

Taken from this awesome site that will do a much better job explaining everything you want to know.

Ornithischians
  • Bird-hipped dinosaurs (pubis faces toward the back of the animal, next to the ischium)
  • Include:
    • Thyreophora - armored dinosaurs such as stegosaurus and ankylosaurus
    • Ornithopoda -  duck-billed dinosaurs
    • Marginocephalia


 






Saurischians
  • Reptile-hipped dinosaurs (pubis faces forward)
  • Ancestors of birds


  • Include:
    • Sauropods - long-necked dinosaurs
    • Theropods - everyone's favorite carnivores
      • Maniraptoras
        • Dromeosaurs
          • Deinonychus, from north America
          • Velociraptor, from Mongolia
        • Birds





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