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The reptiles as historically defined are paraphyletic, since they exclude both birds and mammals. These respectively evolved from dinosaurs and from early therapsids, both of which were traditionally called "reptiles". [20] Birds are more closely related to crocodilians than the latter are to the rest of extant reptiles. Colin Tudge wrote:
Birds are often important to island ecology. Birds have frequently reached islands that mammals have not; on those islands, birds may fulfil ecological roles typically played by larger animals. For example, in New Zealand nine species of moa were important browsers, as are the kererū and kōkako today. [269]
While reptiles and amphibians can be quite similar externally, the French zoologist Pierre André Latreille recognized the large physiological differences at the beginning of the 19th century and split the herptiles into two classes, giving the four familiar classes of tetrapods: amphibians, reptiles, birds and mammals.
Reptiles are tetrapod animals in the class Reptilia, comprising today's turtles, crocodilians, snakes, amphisbaenians, lizards, tuatara, and their extinct relatives. The study of these traditional reptile orders , historically combined with that of modern amphibians , is called herpetology .
Confuciusornis is an example of their trend. While keeping the clawed fingers, perhaps for climbing, it had a pygostyle tail, though longer than in modern birds. A large group of birds, the Enantiornithes, evolved into ecological niches similar to those of modern birds and flourished throughout the Mesozoic. Though their wings resembled those ...
While birds, including raptors, wading birds and roadrunners, and mammals are known to prey on reptiles, the major predator is other reptiles. Some reptiles eat reptile eggs, for example the diet of the Nile monitor includes crocodile eggs, and small reptiles are preyed upon by larger ones. [33]
Reptiles, in the traditional sense of the term, are defined as animals that have scales or scutes, lay land-based hard-shelled eggs, and possess ectothermic metabolisms. So defined, the group is paraphyletic , excluding endothermic animals like birds that are descended from early traditionally-defined reptiles.
2g Other birds: Tawny owl (Strix aluco) [100] date uncertain Europe (including the United Kingdom) pest control, show, pets 2g Other birds: Puna ibis (Plegadis ridgwayi) date uncertain Peru: meat, eggs, pest control 2g Other birds: Celebes warty pig (Sus celebensis) [101] date uncertain Sulawesi: meat, tusks, pets Historically farmed 1a ...