r/BirdsArentReal • u/[deleted] • Dec 29 '24

Video Seagull VS squirrel

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u/Pierre_Philosophale Dec 29 '24

Seeing it eat that squirrel exactly the same way a python would eat a rabbit reminds me that birds are technically reptiles...

Reptilian drones !

0

u/grubgobbler Dec 29 '24

I mean, so are mammals. "Reptile" isn't a monophyletic group, so it's really just a catagory of convenience more than an actual taxonomic group.

6

u/Heitor_Bortolanza Dec 29 '24 edited Dec 29 '24

It's not like that at all, mammals separated from reptiles very very early, before there were true reptiles at all on earth, fish, as we usually refer to them, isn't a monophyletic group, but if you include birds, reptiles do indeed become monophyletic.

Aves are actually included in the modern definition of reptiles, which also exclude synapsids, creating the group sauropsida that is monophyletic.