Talk:Hakutaku/@comment-26347931-20160412173004/@comment-27950421-20160417183524

Actually Anon, Dinosaurs are in fact reptiles. The line between reptile and bird is a bit blurred when it comes to members of the Toodontidae (small carnivores that had existed during the cretaceous period before and around the time birds first showed up), dromeosauridae (raptors), therizinosauridae, oviraptorosauria and a few of the late basal Coelursaurids. However saying that all therapods are avian is completely false, Abelisaurids (I had mispelled them in my earlier posts, apologies), Carnosaurids, Ceratosaurids, Herrasaurids, Ornithomimosaurids, Spinosaurids, Charcheirodontasaurids and Tyrannosaurids (who are members of the overarching Coelursaurids but divided into their own seperate group long before birds were really a thing) are only distantly related to birds. The vast majority of dinosaurs are classified as reptiles. Even then there is currently some debate going as to whether or not birds should be classified as seperate group from reptiles or if reptiles should divided into two groups called avian and non avian reptiles. For simplicities sake and so that they don't have to completely restructure Zoological science ornithology and herpetology are probably going to remain seperate firlds of study but depending on how things go I could end up with harpies under my jurisdiction. As for Gorgonopsid, while yes they quite large by today's standards of predators they aren't all the impressive when compared to a large therapod and are not any faster or more agile. The only advantage they really have is being able to get into smaller areas. Which is useful if you want it to attack your enemies but doesn't really help when it comes to guarding something. The longer reach and intimidation factor of a larger animal outweighs the positives of the smaller in that scenario. Oh, and Gorgonopsid is a therapsid, a mammal-like reptile, still under my jurisdiction but it's more closely related to us than it is to a lizard.