• rozodru@lemmy.world
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    3 days ago

    you seem like an expert and I was actually wondering this yesterday while I was out on a walk cause I tend to think about silly things. So Theropods evolved into birds right? what about Sauropods or like Triceratops? or did they just go extinct

    • Danquebec@sh.itjust.works
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      3 days ago

      Groups never evolve into something. Species do.

      Theropods are a group comprising a lot of species.

      There was one species of theropod that evolved a few characterics we associate with birds. They evolved into a few species and some of them evolved into yet more species. They’re at the origin of the whole bird group.

      See it like a tree with branches branching out with many branchss just getting cut short. One of that branching branch is the bird group, and it’s on the branching branch of theropod.

      And yes, the branching branchs that are Sauropods and Ornithischia were all completely cut at the Cretaceous-Paleogene extinction 65 million years ago.

    • nickwitha_k (he/him)@lemmy.sdf.org
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      3 days ago

      These are actually questions that I’ve asked and done digging about in info sources on. I’m sad to report that it does appear that only descendents of theropod species appear to have survived. :(