Re: Are dinosaurs really reptiles? (2)

[K and T Dykes <ktdykes@arcor.de>]

<<Mammals are reptiles too.   We branched off from the reptile family tree 
before archopods did.>>

Only if you want to use Reptilia to mean much the same as tetrapods minus 
amphians, Dora.

All living reptiles (including birds), have armoured scales on their skin 
composed of both keratin alpha and keratin beta.  If I'm wrong about that, 
I'll doubtlessly be corrected.  I don't have those scales.  And nor do or 
did any synapsid, as far as I'm aware.  In this regard, my skin is 
amphibian-like, and distinct from reptiles.  While some living synapsids, eg 
mice, indeed have scales on their tails, those don't contain keratin beta. 
They're soft.  I know of no evidence whatsoever that we synapsids ever had 
reptilian scales.

<<And my theropods think that we look far more primitive than they do.>>

That's possibly because you also lack their derived scales, but I don't 
speak from personal experience.