Dinosaur classification

High school (ages 12+)
Animals & Nature

Name:

Date:

Step 1 · Read the article

Open the article and read it at the level above. Then answer the questions below in your own words.

https://smallwhale.org/articles/dinosaur-classification

Write what each word means, using the article.

Do not copy the article. Write two things you learned, the way you would explain them to a friend.

Answers below are taken from the article’s stored facts, so they match what the student read.

1. What is the dominant modern methodology?Cladistics, a phylogenetic system analyzing shared derived characteristics to infer evolutionary relationships
2. What did Sir Richard Owen do in 1842 to help us understand dinosaurs?In 1842, Sir Richard Owen named the suborder Dinosauria and grouped the fossils of Iguanodon, Megalosaurus, and Hylaeosaurus together, showing they were different from other reptiles.
3. How did Harry Seeley separate dinosaurs in the 1880s?Harry Seeley studied the pelvis bones of dinosaur fossils and split them into two main groups: Saurischia, the lizard-hipped dinosaurs, and Ornithischia, the bird-hipped dinosaurs.

Monophyletic Group (Clade): A group of organisms believed to have evolved from a common ancestor, including that ancestor and all its descendants.
Synapomorphy: A shared derived characteristic that is unique to a particular clade and its common ancestor.
Phylogenetic Tree: A branching diagram showing the inferred evolutionary relationships among various biological species based upon similarities and differences in their physical or genetic characteristics.