słonie: Crocodylia

Evidence: 45 • authority: 72

Crocodylia or Crocodilia () is an order of semiaquatic, predatory reptiles that are known as crocodilians. They appeared 83.5 million years ago in the Late Cretaceous period (Campanian stage) and are the closest living relatives of birds, as the two groups are the only known survivors of the Archosauria. Members of the crocodilian total group, the clade Pseudosuchia, appeared about 250 million years ago in the Early Triassic period, and diversified during the Mesozoic era. The order includes the true crocodiles (family Crocodylidae), the alligators and caimans (family Alligatoridae), and the gharial and false gharial (family Gavialidae). Although the term "crocodiles" is sometimes used to r…

Evidence: 45 • authority: 72

Dinosaurs are a diverse group of warmblooded reptiles of the clade Dinosauria. They existed through most of the Mesozoic era, first appearing early in the Triassic period. They became the dominant terrestrial vertebrates after the Triassic–Jurassic extinction event 201.3 mya and their dominance continued throughout the Jurassic and Cretaceous periods. The fossil record shows that birds are feathered dinosaurs, having evolved from earlier theropods during the Late Jurassic epoch, and are the only dinosaur lineage known to have survived the Cretaceous–Paleogene extinction event approximately 66 mya. Dinosaurs can therefore be divided into avian dinosaurs—birds—and the extinct non-avian dinosa…

Evidence: 43 • authority: 72

Euparkeria (; meaning "Parker's good animal", named in honor of W. K. Parker) is an extinct genus of archosauriform reptile from the Triassic of South Africa. Euparkeria is close to the ancestry of Archosauria, the reptile group that includes crocodilians, pterosaurs and dinosaurs (including birds). Fossils of Euparkeria, including nearly complete skeletons, have been recovered from the Cynognathus Assemblage Zone (CAZ, also known as the Burgersdorp Formation), which hosts the oldest advanced archosauriforms in the fossil-rich Karoo Basin. Tentative dating schemes place the CAZ around the latest Early Triassic (late Olenekian stage) or earliest Middle Triassic (early Anisian stage), approxi…

Evidence: 30 • authority: 92

The phylogenetic origin of turtles.. The evolutionary origins of turtles remain poorly understood. Molecular systematics posit a sister relationship between turtles and archosaurs, but morphological studies return conflicting hypotheses of turtle relationships both to other living reptiles and to their closest fossil relatives. The middle Permian Eunotosaurus africanus has been widely regarded as the oldest stem turtle, which makes it instrumental in recent discussions of the origins of turtles and their highly transformed anatomy. Here, we use anatomical observations derived from X-ray computed microtomography (μCT) of Eunotosaurus and candidate stem turtles to evaluate phylogenetic hypoth…

Evidence: 30 • authority: 72

Birds are vertebrate animals constituting the class Aves, characterised by feathers, toothless beaked jaws, the laying of hard-shelled eggs, a high metabolic rate, a four-chambered heart, and a strong yet lightweight skeleton. They are warm-blooded, live worldwide, and range in size from the 5.5 cm (2.2 in) bee hummingbird to the 2.8 m (9 ft 2 in) common ostrich. There are over 11,000 living species of birds, classified in 44 orders. More than half of the world's bird species are passerine or "perching" birds. Nearly all birds have wings whose development varies according to the life style of each species. Wings, which are modified forelimbs, gave birds the ability to fly, although further…