Table of Contents
- 1 Are dinosaurs more closely related to crocodiles or turtles?
- 2 What is the common ancestor of crocodiles and turtles?
- 3 Are sea turtles and crocodiles related?
- 4 Who are crocodiles most closely related to?
- 5 What are turtles closely related to?
- 6 What dinosaur is related to a turtle?
- 7 Are turtles more closely related to crocodiles than they are to birds?
- 8 What is the difference between dinosaurs and crocodiles and lizards?
- 9 Why are dinosaur fossils on the Jurassic Coast so rare?
- 10 What can fossil Poo tell us about dinosaurs?
According to California Academy of Sciences and Cal State Fullerton researchers, turtles are more closely related to birds, crocodiles, and dinosaurs than snakes and lizards..
What is the common ancestor of crocodiles and turtles?
What are turtles, and where did they come from? “We show that turtles share a more recent common ancestor with birds and crocodilians — a group known as archosaurs — than with lizards and snakes.” Field and collaborators report their findings May 5 in the journal Evolution and Development.
Are turtles related to Ankylosaurus?
Next generation sequencing technologies have generated unprecedented amounts of genetic information for a thrilling new look at turtles’ evolutionary history. Scientists place turtles in the newly named group ‘Archelosauria’ with their closest relatives: birds, crocodiles, and dinosaurs.
Turtles, not birds, have been found to be the closest relatives of crocodiles and alligators, according to an analysis of the largest available collection of reptile genes. “The results provide strong evidence that the turtle is the crocodile’s closest living relative,” Hedges concludes.
(Crocodilians are actually more closely related to birds and dinosaurs than they are to other reptiles, i.e., lizards, snakes, and turtles.)
Which group is most closely related to turtles?
Having recently looked at more than a thousand of the least-changed regions in the genomes of turtles and their closest relatives, biologists have confirmed that turtles are most closely related to crocodilians and birds rather than to lizards, snakes, and tuataras.
Recent studies have shown that turtles belong in the group Archelosauria, along with relatives like birds, crocodiles, and – you guessed it – dinosaurs.
What animal are crocodiles most closely related to?
birds
(Crocodilians are actually more closely related to birds and dinosaurs than they are to other reptiles, i.e., lizards, snakes, and turtles.)
What is the difference between dinosaurs and crocodiles and lizards?
The answer is simple – dinosaurs have upright legs while crocodiles and lizards have splayed legs. The reptiles also managed to reach for the sky in the form of pterosaurs.However, their fossils are very rare along the Jurassic Coast, partly because the bones were too fragile for fossilisation.
Did crocodiles and turtles ever swim alongside dinosaurs?
A near-complete pterosaur, called Dimorphodon was found by the famous Lyme Regis fossil collector, Mary Anning, in 1824. It’s staggering to think that crocodiles and turtles once walked and swam alongside the dinosaurs.
Why are dinosaur fossils on the Jurassic Coast so rare?
Dinosaur fossils on the Jurassic Coast are rare. Why? Because when dinosaurs were around (in the late Triassic, Jurassic and Cretaceous periods), most of the rocks of the Jurassic Coast were under the sea. So finds usually consist of fragments of dinosaurs that had died, been washed into the sea, then scavenged before becoming fossilised.
What can fossil Poo tell us about dinosaurs?
Fossil poo (coprolites) can tell us a lot about what these animals ate. They are packed with undigested food remains such as fish scales and sometimes the bones of other marine reptiles. Dinosaur fossils on the Jurassic Coast are rare. Why?