Two hundred million years ago the masters of our planet is an ancient reptiles.It was the crown of creation of the time!No other class of animals not kept "power" as long as the reptile.There were many - ancient lizards, crocodilians, tuatara, but the apex of its development began, of course, the dinosaurs.Zveroyaschery lived everywhere: on land, in water, in the air!
science of dinosaurs
ancient reptiles have left a lot of mysteries that can not solve everyone's strength.Balances bones zveroyascherov the correct approach, you can "draw" a picture of the past: the external data lizard, its way of life and so on.That is what paleontologists.Their work is a bit like detective work: on the broken fragments they will recover the whole period of life of a giant reptile!It must be able to competently combine your intuition with logic and imagination, picking up tiny pieces of "past life" of a dinosaur.Restoration of paintings of the past - is no easy task.Without a well-developed fantasy and imagination are not consistent enough.Paleontology - is to some degree a creative science: even the seemingly insignificant fact with the right of its justification could play an important role in the chain of events of the era ... the Age of Dinosaurs!
little classification
Reptiles animals - is quite peculiar group of living beings.The fact that this class is divided into sub-classes, the most primitive and the oldest of which - the so-called anapsid.The last of them died out two hundred million years ago.A separate branch of this group - Synapsid.This is the ancestors of mammals.Synapsid themselves did not live up to the heyday of his descendants.Still later came an offshoot Diapsid, which in turn is divided into lepidosauria and archosaurs.The former include both living in our time, lizards, snakes, tuatara, and some extinct marine predators with long, serpentine necks called plesiosaurs.By archosaurs include crocodiles, pterosaurs and dinosaurs.These ancient reptiles almost all extinct.Only the crocodiles.Are they - are the only descendants of the ancient reptiles?Not certainly in that way!
feathered heritage
direct descendants of dinosaurs are birds.Although it is not the class of reptiles, birds but that its structure and appearance reminiscent of ancient dinosaurs.At the same time feel the difference: the birds - descendants flying zveroyascherov type of pterosaur Quetzalcoatl, namely "land" of the dinosaurs!Flying dinosaurs became extinct, leaving no legacy.
Death Dynasty
ancient reptiles were very varied and numerous, in its perfection and organization of them could match any other group of animals.Zveroyascherov studied and continue to study with great interest than other extinct animals.The collapse of the "empire of dinosaurs" still creates a lot of theories, disputes versions.For whatever reason, there was no destruction of the dynasty ruling over the world of reptiles, it took several million years before the Earth was able to recover after a global catastrophe.When it all happened, the giant dinosaurs have not found her place.They died out forever.Instead, there were other - beautiful and strong animals!But we have something you already know that a small group of descendants of the ancient reptiles have been able to survive, and today its representatives all around us ... It's - birds!
