8102 - Today I learned -

[scottobear]

Dinosaurs are a specific subgroup of the archosaurs, a group that also includes crocodiles, pterosaurs, and birds. although pterosaurs are close relations, they are not true dinosaurs. Even more distantly related to dinosaurs are the marine reptiles, which include the plesiosaurs and ichthyosaurs. Mammoths and mastodons are mammals and did not appear until many millions of years after the close of the Cretaceous period. Dimetrodon is neither a reptile nor a mammal, but a basal synapsid, i.e., an early relative of the ancestors of mammals.

I honestly didn't know that pterosaurs and marine reptiles didn't count as dinos,  or that dinosaur wasn't a catch-all term before today, and I've loved early critters for well over three decades. Talk about a hole in my education!

-as a side result of this entry of graypumpkin 's

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Also testing out this site to seek out info re: sexual predators over a mapped area -

http://www.familywatchdog.us/

Type in your home address or a family members address. The web site will bring up a map of your neighborhood with small colored boxes on it. The small House icon represents your address; the colored boxes represent sex offenders in your area.

Click on the colored boxes and it will bring up the offender's photograph and the exact address, names and employers. Click ALL AROUND, you will be amazed at the information you get!

Seems to work better with MSIE than Mozilla

Comments

[scottobear.livejournal.com]

archosaur doesn't have the same "huzzah!" as Dinosaur.