Question

In kingdom animalia according to the traditional school of systematic, birds are assigned to a different group from reptiles because

• A. They evolved from reptiles
• B. They are quite different from reptiles
• C. Feathers evolved from scales
• D. All of the above

Answer 1

Answer: (D)

All of the above

In the Linnaean system, organisms are grouped by characteristics regardless of their ancestry. So, a reptile is an animal that is ectothermic and has scales, and birds would not be reptiles. In the 1940's, a biologist named Willi Hennig came up with another classification system that he called as phylogenetics. In this system, organisms are grouped only by their ancestry and characteristics are only used to discover the ancestry. So, a bird is any animal descended from the original group called as reptiles and birds (as well as mammals) would be reptiles.

Thus, the correct answer is option D.