What is the difference between mammals and dinosaurs?

Answer 1

Crocodiles and dinosaurs are both classified as types of Archosaur but they are on different branches and therefore different groups.

The biggest, most obvious difference is that crocodiles walk on sprawled limbs that stick out the side of the body whereas dinosaurs walk on erect limbs held below the body.

In actuality very few dinosaurs look anything like crocodiles. Some dinosaurs are bipedal, some fly (birds) even most the quadraped dinosaurs dont look like Crocodiles.

The most crocodile looking dinosaurs are probably the herbivorous ankylosaurs. These are covered in scales, armor and have a low profile. But even these don't really look like crocodiles.

Not all dinosaurs are covered in scales. There are some groups which are covered in feathers. All crocodiles are covered in scales.

These days mesozoic dinosaurs are generally thought to be warm blooded. Modern day dinosaurs, the birds, are also warm blooded whereas crocodiles are cold blooded.

Rather than use mesozoic dinosaurs, which are sadly extinct, why not use modern day dinosaurs and ask the question: What is the difference between birds and crocodiles? Some of the the differences should become more aparent.

Answer 2

Some differences between birds and dinosaurs are dinosaurs are cold-blooded reptiles, and they have scales as an outer covering, while birds are warm-blooded, and have feathers as an outer covering.-------------------------------------------------------------Technically speaking, birds ARE dinosaurs themselves, so this question becomes meaningless by definition (i.e. "How are dinosaurs different from dinosaurs?"). It is very likely that certain non-avian dinosaurs were warm blooded as well, and some of them certainly had feathers (the dromeosaurids, for example) even though they were not birds as such. Even T.Rex may have had simple feathers as a juvenile.A lot of the features that we now associate with birds first arose in theropod dinosaurs, and were later inherited by the first birds (like Archaeopteryx), these features include hollow bones, air sacs that penetrate into the bones, pennaceous feathers and egg-brooding behavior.The most obvious difference between birds and non-avian dinosaurs is the fact that most birds can fly, and as far as we know non-avian dinosaurs couldn't (although it's possible that some very closely related dinosaurs could glide and maybe even achieve powered flight). The other glaring difference is that birds are still extant, whereas as far as we know all non-avian dinosaurs have been extinct since the end of the Cretaceous.

Answer 3

Mammals are animals evolved from synapsid reptiles. They feed their young milk and have a unique arrangement of teeth and ear bones. Most are covered with fur or at least have fur on some par of their bodies. Except for a few species that could be counted on one hand, all mammals give birth to live young.

Dinosaurs evolved from diapsid reptiles, a group that also contains lizards, snakes, and crocodilians and is related to tortoises. That makes them more closely related to modern reptiles than to mammals. Birds, are now known to be a divergent group of dinosaurs. Like birds, dinosaurs laid eggs and many of them probably had feathers.

Answer 4

dinosaurs are a form of prehistoric animal