People who love reptiles ask everybody
to give these creatures a good hard look every year. You can do your
part by exploring reptiles “in the flesh” by going to a zoo or
pet store (is there a Prehistoric Pets store in your area? ...they
specialize in reptiles!), or through books or videos.
Here is a “Bill Nye the Science Guy”
episode on reptiles.
(There are three parts, totaling around 20 or 30 minutes.)
Here is BBC's Life, with David
Attenborough,
about reptiles and amphibians. (This is about an hour long.)
Were
dinosaurs reptiles? And are birds dinosaurs? Wait, birds can't be
reptiles...Or can they?
According
to several sources I consulted, there is evidence that some
dinosaurs, at least, were warm-blooded. People used to define
reptiles partly by the fact that they are cold-blooded... but that is
no longer part of the description of reptiles.
A
new system of classification states that reptiles include turtles,
crocodiles, snakes, lizards and tuataras, and dinosaurs. In this
system, birds are considered a subset of dinosaurs...so they are a
subset of the reptile group. Here is a pretty easy-to-understand
article about birds being one sort of reptiles.
On
the other hand, at least one classification system say that dinosaurs and
birds are not in the reptile group. In this system, it would be more
correct to say that dinosaurs, including birds, evolved from
reptiles.
Check
out
the Reptile Channel's page on Reptile Awareness Day.
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