Soycordado t1_j5633fo wrote
Like u/DrDirtPhD said, it wouldn't clear anything up. If we assigned all amniotes as reptiles that would make us reptiles too (as it is, people have a problem with view birds as reptiles).
But also, the choices here are to help break the older "ladder thinking" and similar biases in biology.
As such, calling synapsids "mammal-like reptiles" and reptiles "bird-like" or "lizard-like" reptiles has a heavy implication of directionality to it. Evolution doesn't move towards some goal. Birds and mmmals aren't some pinnacle of vertebrate or amniote evolution. We all exist, some survive, some die. We all seem to have our niches (more or less, life changes, and humans are... complicated). But none are inherently "better" than anything else because that isn't scientific, and trying to force a zebra to live like a lizard wouldn't work, just as an example.
[deleted] OP t1_j56fhrp wrote
Huh. I never thought about it like that. But when you think about it I guess you're kinda right because saying we're descended from mammal-like reptiles may imply to people with the ladder thinking that reptiles are just "less evolved", when they're not.
Still would've been nice to be able to say I was descended from a dinosaur though lol.
Soycordado t1_j56xzem wrote
Exactly. Takes the implications right out of it. Sprawling gaits and ectothermy work well for some, no need to change it, doesn't mean they're "primitive" just means they're undergoing different selective pressures!
lol, yes. But. to say we come from such a beautifully complex lineage is pretty cool too. Enigmatic in some cases. More fun that way, imo.
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