2 verifications about Dinosaurs Dinosaurs ×
“Dinosaurs went extinct before 75 million years ago.”
Non-avian dinosaurs survived well past 75 million years ago. They went extinct at the Cretaceous–Paleogene boundary about 66 million years ago. A proposed decline in diversity beginning around 76 million years ago was not their extinction, and birds—which are dinosaurs—survived.
“Dinosaurs are birds and lizards.”
The claim is not supported by modern taxonomy. Birds are living dinosaurs, but dinosaurs are not simply “birds,” because only one dinosaur lineage survives as birds. Dinosaurs are reptiles within Archosauria, whereas lizards belong to a different reptile branch, Squamata, so calling dinosaurs “lizards” is scientifically wrong.