how did dinosaurs evolve from reptiles - Brave Search

Natural History Museum

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Where did dinosaurs come from? | Natural History Museum

When did dinosaurs evolve, and what did the first ones look like? The earliest definitive dinosaur is not one animal but an entire ecosystem containing a few different species. There's no universally accepted dinosaur species that lived earlier in time. Dating to around 230 million years ago, in the Late Triassic Period, the Ischigualasto Formation in Argentina contains an array of animal remains. It shows that the environment was dominated by early reptiles known as rhynchosaurs, as well as animals closely related to mammalian origins called cynodonts.

BBC Science Focus Magazine

sciencefocus.com › planet-earth › what-did-dinosaurs-evolve-from

What did dinosaurs evolve from? - BBC Science Focus Magazine

July 12, 2023 - Dinosaurs are a type of reptile, and they evolved from another group of reptiles called ‘dinosauromorphs’ around 250 million years ago. The dinosauromorphs were small and humble animals, and they didn’t look anything like T.

Videos

How Dinosaurs Evolved and Took Over the World - YouTube

September 5, 2019

What Was The First Dinosaur to Evolve? - UNSOLVED Dinosaur Mysteries ...

October 6, 2024

Evolution of Dinosaurs in 10 Minutes - YouTube

October 28, 2023

The 8-Minute Guide to Dinosaur Evolution - YouTube

How Dinosaurs Evolved Into Birds | Survivors: A New Theory - YouTube

From Dinosaurs to Birds: The Remarkable Evolutionary ...

thoughtco.com › how-did-dinosaurs-evolve-1092130

How Did Dinosaurs Evolve?

April 18, 2018 - Like all living things, they evolved, slowly and gradually, according to the rules of Darwinian selection and adaptation, from previously existing creatures—in this case, a family of primitive reptiles known as archosaurs ("ruling lizards").

reuters.com › science › where-did-dinosaurs-first-evolve-scientists-have-an-answer-2025-01-23

Where did dinosaurs first evolve? Scientists have an answer | Reuters

January 23, 2025 - Dinosaurs evolved from more primitive reptiles in the aftermath of Earth's biggest mass-extinction event caused by extreme volcanism at the end of the Permian Period about 252 million years ago.

American Museum of Natural History

amnh.org › explore › news-blogs › research-posts › tiny-reptile-dinosaur-relative

Dinosaurs Descended From Tiny Reptiles | AMNH

Kongonaphon kely, a new tiny reptile from the Triassic that was an early relative of dinosaurs and pterosaurs, was one of the hundreds of fossils uncovered at this site. Courtesy of J. Flynn ... In the popular imagination, dinosaurs are towering, thundering animals like the super predator Tyrannosaurus rex. But new research suggests that dinosaurs—and their pterosaur relatives—evolved from extremely small ancestors.

Biology LibreTexts

bio.libretexts.org › bookshelves › introductory and general biology › introductory biology (ck-12) › 12: vertebrates

12.19: Reptile Evolution - Biology LibreTexts

March 6, 2021 - By the middle of the Triassic about 225 million years ago, sauropsids had evolved into dinosaurs. Dinosaurs became increasingly important throughout the rest of the Mesozoic Era, as they radiated to fill most terrestrial niches.

thehindu.com › sci-tech › science › where-did-dinosaurs-first-evolve-scientists-have-an-answer › article69142579.ece

Where did dinosaurs first evolve? Scientists have an answer - The Hindu

January 26, 2025 - Dinosaurs evolved from more primitive reptiles in the aftermath of the earth’s biggest mass-extinction event caused by extreme volcanism at the end of the Permian Period about 252 million years ago.

reddit.com › r/paleontology › if dinosaurs are reptiles and birds evolved from dinosaurs; does that make birds reptiles?

r/Paleontology on Reddit: If dinosaurs are reptiles and birds evolved from dinosaurs; does that make birds reptiles?

February 28, 2023 -

I am having a crisis over this thought, someone please help

You're using two types of classification at once and that's where the confusion is. If you categorize by characteristics (Linnaean), reptiles are ectothermic, have scales, lay eggs, etc. If you categorize by ancestry (Phylogenetic), reptiles are anything descended from the original group called reptiles--which would include dinosaurs, birds, and humans. They are used in different circumstances based on what is more useful to show information. Biology isn't nearly neat and tidy enough to actually have nice sorted groups with clean distinctions, so cladygrams are just tools to help understand the complexities of the web of life and don't mean anything in the real world. Edit: mammals evolved independent of reptiles, not as descendants--disqualifying humans in my example. Edited for accuracy, but left original because aspects concerning the original question (birds and dinosaurs as reptiles) were accurate and the general point of cladistics being a tool, not a rule stands.

Technically, yes. If you want to have even more of a breakdown, technically all vertebrates are fish.

en.wikipedia.org › wiki › Evolution_of_reptiles

Evolution of reptiles - Wikipedia

September 28, 2025 - Reptiles have an extremely diverse ... years ago, in the swamps of the late Carboniferous period, when the first reptiles evolved from advanced labyrinthodonts....

Rise of dinosaurs

The four orders of Reptilia

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quora.com › Did-reptiles-evolve-from-dinosaurs

Did reptiles evolve from dinosaurs? - Quora

Answer (1 of 10): Stop, reverse that, and play it again. Dinosaurs evolved from reptiles. Birds are dinosaurs. Birds evolved from reptiles. Mammals also evolved from reptiles (or protoreptiles). The things before reptiles were amphibians and fish. And this whole thread gets messier, because th...

newcreation.blog › home › where did dinosaurs come from?

Where Did Dinosaurs Come From? • New Creation Blog

May 28, 2025 - Coelophysis, one of the alleged “earliest” dinosaurs. There is little evidence of transitional forms linking them to a common ancestor. This is especially apparent with archosaurs like pterosaurs, which appear abruptly in the fossil record as flighted reptiles. This pattern is known as a “taxic explosion,” of which the Cambrian Explosion is the most well-known. However, taxic explosions are a common occurrence in the fossil record. Some scientists suggest that archosaurs evolved in a bout of rapid speciation that followed the Permian mass extinction.

Scientific American

scientificamerican.com › article › dinosaurs-evolved-in-a-startlingly-short-time

Dinosaurs Evolved in a Startlingly Short Time | Scientific American

February 20, 2024 - Dinosaurs took less than 5 million years to evolve from their reptile predecessors, the early dinosauromorphs, a new study finds.

en.wikipedia.org › wiki › Dinosaur

Dinosaur - Wikipedia

3 days ago - Their erect posture enabled early dinosaurs to breathe easily while moving, which likely permitted stamina and activity levels that surpassed those of "sprawling" reptiles. Erect limbs probably also helped support the evolution of large size by reducing bending stresses on limbs. Some non-dinosaurian archosaurs, including rauisuchians, also had erect limbs but achieved this by a "pillar-erect" configuration of the hip joint, where instead of having a projection from the femur insert on a socket on the hip, the upper pelvic bone was rotated to form an overhanging shelf.

History of study

Evolutionary history

Origin of birds

Extinction of major groups

Cultural depictions

Further reading

biology.stackexchange.com › questions › 64958 › evolution-of-dinosaurs

herpetology - Evolution of dinosaurs - Biology Stack Exchange

Source of information

See the post The best free and most up to date phylogenetic tree on the internet? for info about how to find such information.

Generally speaking, you might be interested in an intro to phylogenetics such as the one provided in this answer for example.

Where are dinosaurs in the tree of life?

Dinosaurs fall within the Reptiliomorpha clade. Please note that Reptiliomorpha does not quite correspond to what we today call reptiles. Please see the post If dinosaurs could have feathers, would they still be reptiles?

Reptiliomorpha is the sister clade to Amphibia (from here) which contain all living amphibians.

If you look within the Amniota, you will find all of the following

Here, you see that turtles and mammals are an off-shoot of Diapsida. So dinosaurs are not mammals and there are not closely related to turtles. Now if you click on Diapsida you will find ...

the Archosauromorpha which contains all crocodiles, birds and dinosaurs. You can keep going to find Therapoda which contains many dinosaurs and birds. You can keep going like this for yourself and discover the entire tree of life!

Reacting to your sentences

What did dinosaurs evolve from?

When asking this question, please do not forget that no species evolved from an extant species. If this is unclear to you, you should have a look at this post.

Was it the reptiles that evolved from amphibians?

Well... the term reptile is a mess because it does not represent a monophyletic group (see this post). If you do not understand the term monophyletic, then you should have a look at this answer.

Amphibians evolved from fish...

Well... sure. However, fish is also not monophyletic so it is misleading. Also, I am afraid when you say "Amphibians evolved from fish" that you are thinking of modern extant fish which would be wrong.

reptiles from amphibians...

Nope, this is wrong. Reptiles and amphibians are sister(-ish) clades.

dinosaurs from reptiles (?)...

This is more or less true although again, do not think of modern reptiles and also, reptiles is a mess because it is not a monophyletic group. But Dinosaurs are Reptilia

and birds from dinosaurs.

Yes, this is pretty much true.

Note generally though that it is misleading to say "birds evolved from dinosaurs", "humans evolved from apes" and "mammals evolved from vertebrates". It is more correct to say "birds are dinosaurs", "humans are apes" and "mammals are vertebrates". I would be even better to use the latin names to avoid confusion with misuse of these words in the popular culture.

If you check wiki you can find that dinosaurs evolved in the clade of Archosaurs. Crocodiles and birds are still living representatives of the Archosaurs. The most recent common ancestor of birds and crocodiles, was also the ancestor of the dinosaurs and was a reptile.

earth.com › home › news › animals

Where did dinosaurs come from? Scientists say they figured it out - Earth.com

February 3, 2025 - During the Late Triassic period, dinosaurs were only a minor part of a diverse ecosystem filled with other reptilian creatures. These included the ancestors of crocodiles, known as pseudosuchians, some of which grew up to 10 meters (33 feet) long. Another major group in this prehistoric world was pterosaurs, the first vertebrates to develop powered flight. These flying reptiles would eventually evolve ...

Ask A Biologist

askabiologist.asu.edu › questions › birds-dinosaurs-reptiles

If birds evolved from dinosaurs, would that make them reptiles too? | Ask A Biologist

These evolved over the next 65 million years into modern birds. So birds aren't just closely related to dinosaurs, they really are dinosaurs! And they are most closely related to crocodiles, which also came from archosaurs. This is what most people mean when they say that birds are reptiles, although technically, according to the phylogenetic system, birds, reptiles, and mammals all share a reptile-like ancestor.

CK-12 Foundation

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reddit.com › r/paleontology › if anyone has it , i’d like a list of what exactly dinosaurs evolved from

r/Paleontology on Reddit: if anyone has it , i’d like a list of what exactly dinosaurs evolved from

June 2, 2020 -

i know , i know , it’s archosaurs , but what did they evolve from ? basically i want like everything from bacteria to dinosaurs (which is asking a lot but whatever i look up i just don’t understand :( any help is greatly appreciated though !) this is for a story i’m writing and i’m an aspiring paleontologist but in very new and a little in over my head . you yourself don’t have to explain it , but if you have any links or a better subreddit to ask this to that is ve red much appreciated . thanks so much !!!

This is a really complicated question, so I can't easily answer it fully. However, here's a list of most of the taxonomic groups Dinosauria evolved from (in order as you get closer to Dinosauria). In taxonomy, everything is considered a member of each group it evolved from (so dinosaurs did not only evolve from archosaurs, they are a type of archosaur). Life > Archaea > Eukaryota > Unikonta > Obazoa > Opisthokonta > Holozoa > Filozoa > Apoikozoa > Metazoa (Animalia) > Eumetazoa > Bilateria > Deuterostomia > Chordata > Olfactores > Vertebrata > Gnathostomata > Osteichthyes > Sarcopterygii > Rhipidistia > Tetrapodomorpha > Eotetrapodiformes > Elpistostegalia > Stegocephalia > Tetrapoda > Reptiliomorpha > Amniota > Sauropsida > Romeriida > Diapsida > Neoreptilia > Neodiapsida > Sauria (Reptilia) > Archosauromorpha > Archelosauria > Crocopoda > Archosauriformes > Eucrocopoda > Archosauria > Avemetatarsalia > Ornithodira > Dinosauromorpha > Dinosauriformes > Dracohors > Dinosauria. The exact ancestral organism of each of these groups is not known, but here is a very simplified list of some organisms that were roughly similar to the evolutionary sequence, starting with bilaterian animals (i.e. animals more complex than sponges and jellyfish).t Ikaria (Bilateria) Pikaia (Chordata) Metaspriggina Jamoytius (Vertebrata) Cephalaspis Entelognathus (Gnathostomata) Guiyu (Osteichthyes) Eusthenopteron (Tetrapodomorpha) Tiktaalik (Elpistostegalia) Ichthyostega (Stegocephalia) Pederpes Seymouria (Tetrapoda) Westlothiana Petrolacosaurus (Diapsida) Youngina (Neodiapsida) Protorosaurus (Archosauromorpha) Prolacerta (Crocopoda) Proterosuchus (Archosauriformes) Euparkeria (Eucrocopoda) Teleocrater (Avemetatarsalia) Lagosuchus (Dinosauriformes) I hope this helps.

http://phylopic.org/name/b0d75722-6ce9-458c-abf5-04118975c6be/lineage/

quora.com › When-I-was-a-child-I-was-taught-that-dinosaurs-were-reptiles-but-now-it-seems-that-they-are-treated-like-ancestors-of-birds-Does-this-mean-that-dinosaurs-were-in-between-the-evolution-of-reptiles-and-birds

When I was a child, I was taught that dinosaurs were reptiles, but now it seems that they are treated like ancestors of birds. Does this mean that dinosaurs were in between the evolution of reptiles and birds? - Quora

Answer (1 of 53): Thank you for the A2A Shigeki Originally when dinosaur remains/bones were discovered scientists thought that dinosaurs were large lizards, ie: reptiles. The word "dinosaur" is Greek for "terrible lizard." Over the last 10 yrs they’ve begun to understand the difference. Dinosa...

Natural History Museum

nhm.ac.uk › discover › news › 2025 › january › first-dinosaurs-evolved-northern-africa-south-america.html

First dinosaurs may have evolved in northern Africa and South America | Natural History Museum

While the ancestors of the pterosaurs and pseudosuchians moved north, the predecessors of the dinosaurs stayed in Gondwana. These reptiles eventually evolved into the first dinosaurs.