The simple truth

[max-greece]

Reptiles evolved into birds, really? Based on what? If so why did some evolve and some didn't? Wouldn't of all reptiles of ceased to exist and there be just more birds? Who decides they stay a lizard and another will be a bird?

Oh dear.

The lack of knowledge you are displaying here is so great it is almost impossible to address but god dammit I am going to try!

The animal kingdom is broken down as follows:

Kingdom
Phylum
Class
Order
Family
Genus
Species

This is a hierarchical structure so a species belongs to a Genus which belongs to a family and so on.

Reptiles are a class - as are mammals, birds and so on.

There are many species of Reptiles belonging to a smaller group of Genii belonging to a smaller number of families and so on.

Species evolve.

Over extended periods of time a given species may evolve into a creature sufficiently different from the original that it changes Genus, a longer period and it might change Family and so on.

All the while other species of reptile have evolved differently. Some may have stayed as reptiles and even as the same species, others created new Genii, families etc.

At the same time species go extinct all the time. Genii go extinct less often - again all the way up.

On a few occasions in the history of this planet, great extinction events - five of which are known about, huge numbers of species have gone extinct taking out entire genii, families, orders and classes. The most famous of these is the extinction of the dinosaurs 65 million years ago where whole families of marine reptiles and all of the pterosaurs also went extinct at the same time.

It is important to understand that a single species can, under exceptional circumstances give rise to everything below Phylum (possibly even Kingdom).

One example of this is the species that gave rise to the vertebrates ( overwhelming majority of the phylum Chordata) of which you are a member.

So here is (probably) your great great great.....granddad. He's 525 million years old:



His children include mammals, birds, reptiles, mammal like reptiles, dinosaurs, pterosaurs and Christian TV evangelists.