What Do You Mean It's Not a Dinosaur?

shape of its hips. I will talk more about dinosaur skulls and hips in up-coming articles, so be sure to check back often to learn more about paleontology and dinosaurs!

Turtles are also not dinosaurs, because they have shells, and also because their skulls are very differently shaped from those of dinosaurs.

And perhaps the most important thing to remember about dinosaurs is that they are reptiles. The word "dinosaur" means "terrible lizard," and was coined by Richard Owen, who was one of the first scientists to study the Dinosauria, the animals we call dinosaurs.

Since only reptiles can be dinosaurs, this means that extinct mammals, like Mammoths and Mastodons, cannot be dinosaurs.

So who are the dinosaurs? In my next article, I will be discussing the two main groups of dinosaurs, the Saurischia and Ornithischia.

Now you can amaze your friends the next time you are at a museum by explaining which extinct animals are dinosaurs, and which are not!

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