Talk:Mammal

dino line - I know NOTHING about evo, so do feel free to re "undo" my "undo" but this is what wiki says "From the point of view of phylogenetic nomenclature, mammals are the only surviving synapsids. The synapsid lineage became distinct from the sauropsid ("reptile") lineage in the late Carboniferous period, between 320 and 315 million years ago,[1] and were the most common and largest land vertebrates of the Permian period.[2] But in the Triassic period a previously obscure group of sauropsids, the archosaurs, became the dominant vertebrates and one archosaur group, the dinosaurs, dominated the rest of the Mesozoic era. These changes forced the Mesozoic mammaliforms ("nearly mammals") into nocturnal niches, and may have contributed greatly to the development of mammalian traits such as endothermy, hair and a largebrain. Later in the Mesozoic mammals spread into other ecological niches, for example aquatic, gliding and even preying on dinosaurs. Non-mammalian synapsids are often calledmammal-like reptiles despite diverging very early from the other reptilian lines." -- to me, that is pretty clear they evolved from dinos. but again, i know jack squat. In 2011