ARE SEA TURTLES THE CURRENT DINOSAURS?

[BIOIVON]

Why scientists believe the sea turtles descended from dinosaurs?
What is the morphological evidence that there?, there may be genetic evidence?

[Darby]

I don't think that they DO believe that.

[skeptic]

The first turtle-like reptile fossil is late Permian - well before the dinosaurs evolved.

[Lenoxus]

The living descendants of the dinosaurs are birds. All birds have a common ancestor which arose from the maniraptors, which are coelurosaurs, which are therapods, which are dinosaurs.

We know that birds descend from this group because of their morphology; not only do they have very similar skeletons but most of the coelurosaurian dinosaurs had feathers. For this and other reasons, there's a grey area between "dinosaur" and "bird".

Whether birds are dinosaurs is a matter of human convention; some paleontologists say so and others draw a distinction. If your mother's surname is Smith and your father's is Jones, you could "be" a Smith, a Jones, a Smith-Jones, or some new name altogether, depending on what they write down at the hospital; none of that would change who you are or what your parentage is.