Are Birds close to Reptiles

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Few days back I watched a show on discovery channel which tried to establish a link between dinosaurs and birds, it said that possibly birds evolved from dinosaurs. It showcased many reasons for the same. Mainly the similarity between the skeletons of the birds and dinosaurs was too convincing, such similarity to the dinosaurs is not scene in any other living creature on earth.Also dinosaurs are believed to have respiratory systems similar to modern birds.

  

 As the dinosaurs are said to be reptiles ( As they had no fur, laid eggs, their skin had scales, and many of their species were cold blodded )  after watching that show, I started wondering whether birds are close to reptiles, though birds are not technically reptiles as they are warm blooded as opposed to reptiles which are cold blooded. But there are many similarities, which are following

• Birds and reptiles both lay eggs
• Birds and reptiles show some skeletal similarities
• Birds have feathers, which are said to be modified scales
• Birds feet have scales 

Even whether dinosaurs were reptiles, is too debatable, as it’s still not sure whether they were warm blooded or cold blooded. Till the mid 20^th century it was believed that dinosaurs were cold blooded, slow moving creatures, but later research has found that they were very active animals and could have been warm blooded. This issue is still debatable.  Also one dissimilarity between dinosaurs and reptiles is that the legs of dinosaurs were directly below their hips, like in mammals and unlike in lizards.

 

So, the conclusion of the above is that there are similarities between both birds and reptiles and dinosaurs and reptiles, so scientists established a theory that both birds and reptiles had a common ancestor in dinosaurs. But there are many who even believe that birds are not evolved from dinosaurs but birds are dinosaurs.

 

Many may think that why I’m discussing such a topic, or how does it matter if birds are close to reptiles. But it matters to me because I used to like birds and used to not like reptiles. In fact I hate reptiles, I become restless if I spot a lizard on the walls and cant live in such a place. So, now after watching that show on discovery and analyzing similarities between birds and reptiles, I didn’t really enjoy this fact.