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Birds are now recognized as being the sole surviving lineage of theropod dinosaurs.
In traditional taxonomy,
birds were considered a separate class that had evolved from dinosaurs, a distinct superorder. However, a
majority of contemporary paleontologists concerned with dinosaurs reject the traditional style of classification
in favor of phylogenetic taxonomy; this approach requires that, for a group to be natural, all descendants of
members of the group must be included in the group as well. Birds are thus considered to be dinosaurs and
dinosaurs are, therefore, not extinct.[10] Birds are classified as belonging to the subgroup Maniraptora, which
are coelurosaurs, which are theropods, which are saurischians, which are dinosaurs.[11]
Research by Matthew G. Baron, David B. Norman, and Paul M. Barrett in 2017 suggested a radical revision of
dinosaurian systematics. Phylogenetic analysis by Baron et al. recovered the Ornithischia as being closer to the
Theropoda than the Sauropodomorpha, as opposed to the traditional union of theropods with
sauropodomorphs. They resurrected the clade Ornithoscelida to refer to the group containing Ornithischia and
Theropoda. Dinosauria itself was re-defined as the last common ancestor of Triceratops horridus, Passer
domesticus and Diplodocus carnegii, and all of its descendants, to ensure that sauropods and kin remain
included as dinosaurs.[12][13]
General description
Triceratops skeleton, Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County
Using one of the above definitions, dinosaurs can be generally described as archosaurs with hind limbs held
erect beneath the body.[14] Other prehistoric animals, including pterosaurs, mosasaurs, ichthyosaurs,
plesiosaurs, and Dimetrodon, while often popularly conceived of as dinosaurs, are not taxonomically classified
as dinosaurs.[15] Pterosaurs are distantly related to dinosaurs, being members of the clade Ornithodira. The
other groups mentioned are, like dinosaurs and pterosaurs, members of Sauropsida (the reptile and bird clade),
except Dimetrodon (which is a synapsid). None of them had the erect hind limb posture characteristic of true
dinosaurs.[16]
Dinosaurs were the dominant terrestrial vertebrates of the Mesozoic Era, especially the Jurassic and
Cretaceous periods. Other groups of animals were restricted in size and niches; mammals, for example, rarely
exceeded the size of a domestic cat, and were generally rodent-sized carnivores of small prey.[17] They have
always been recognized as an extremely varied group of animals; over 900 non-avian dinosaur genera have
been identified with certainty as of 2018, and the total number of genera preserved in the fossil record has
been estimated at around 1850, nearly 75% of which remain to be discovered, and 1124 species by 2016.[18]
[19][20] A 1995 study predicted that about 3,400 dinosaur genera ever existed, including many that would not
have been preserved in the fossil record.[21]
In 2016, the estimated number of dinosaur species that existed in the Mesozoic was 1,543–2,468.[22][23] In
2021, the number of modern-day birds (avian dinosaurs) was estimated to be at 10,806 species.[24] Some are
herbivorous, others carnivorous, including seed-eaters, fish-eaters, insectivores, and omnivores. While
dinosaurs were ancestrally bipedal (as are all modern birds), some prehistoric species were quadrupeds, and
others, such as Anchisaurus and Iguanodon, could walk just as easily on two or four legs. Cranial modifications
like horns and crests are common dinosaurian traits, and some extinct species had bony armor. Although
known for large size, many Mesozoic dinosaurs were human-sized or smaller, and modern birds are generally
small in size. Dinosaurs today inhabit every continent, and fossils show that they had achieved global
distribution by at least the Early Jurassic epoch.[25] Modern birds inhabit most available habitats, from
terrestrial to marine, and there is evidence that some non-avian dinosaurs (such as Microraptor) could fly or at
least glide, and others, such as spinosaurids, had semiaquatic habits.[26]

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Birds are now recognized as being the sole surviving lineage of theropod dinosaurs.

Triceratops skeleton, Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County

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