this post was submitted on 08 Sep 2025
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Not really. Why aren't they bears? Because they're something else entirely. "Why aren't lizards dinosaurs" "because dinosaurs are archesaurs and lizards are reptiles, sometimes they may look similar but they're very different". Its the same reason thst Daniel Radcliffe isn't in line to the throne of England, they're more distant relatives than that.
I feel like I'm coming off a jerk here but I just think appealing to taxonomy without actually giving any background info or further reasoning is a kinda boring and only a surface level way to answer the question. It doesn't really give the asker much new insight into the topic.
You answer "ARE lizards dinosaurs" and the answer is valid. But you dont really answer the "why" part of the question (IMO). Someone without a good understanding of taxonomy wouldn't really gain anything from this answer.
To me this is just A is not B because A is not B, according to the list of As and Bs. Without actually understanding the reasoning we're just left with rote memorization.
iMO a better way to answer "Why aren't lizards dinosaurs" could be:
The classification of animals is based on shared ancestry, not just physical appearance. The reptile class split into two major groups after the Permian period:
Archosauria, dinosaurs and modern crocodile.
Lepidosauria, modern lizards.
But how do we know they split?
A distinguishing feature that sets modern lizards apart from dinosaurs is their gait. Lizards have a sprawling gait. Their legs extend out to the side of their bodies, and they move with a side-to-side motion.
Dinosaurs, on the other hand, had an upright stance, with their legs positioned directly beneath their bodies, similar to mammals.
I feel like you're expecting people to understand how to answer questions in ways that satisfy everyone. Part of learning is learning how to ask follow up questions. "What are the differences between these things?" "what is an order?" "What makes something a marsupial?" "I thought carnivore just meant eats only meat, but you're saying there's something called carnivora, could you expand on that?"
When someone asks how airplanes fly some of them won't be satisfied until bernoulli comes up but others are regretting asking by the time you start explaining how wing geometry creates pressure differentials, when they just needed to know about the four forces of flight and that wing shape creates lift
IMO just explaining the concept of lift is probably good enough for a basic but proper explanation.
An answer in the same style as the one in the comic would be more like "Airplanes fly because they go into the air".