Dinosaur Files

If dinosaurs were reptiles, then why do their skeletons look more like a mammel?

If dinosaurs were reptiles, then why do their skeletons look more like a mammel? Also, since they were suppose to be reptiles, did they have a forked tongue like so many reptiles have today?

Public Comments

1. They are more commonly believed to be avian than reptilian
2. Would you say alligators look like mammals. They do not have forked tongues either.
3. <<If dinosaurs were reptiles, then why do their skeletons look more like a mammel?>> Generally, they don't look more like mammals. The feature you're probably thinking of is the position of the legs, as they hang relatively straight down from the hips, and that is more in line with both birds and mammals than with other reptiles. That similaritiy with mammals is merely superficial.
4. there are a lot of differences between dinosaur and mammalian skeletal structures. A lot are in the head (skull), if I am correctly remembering my vertebrate anatomy.
5. Dinosaurs are a distinctive type of reptile and the ancestors of birds. We have no idea if some of them had forked tongues.