Class Reptilia includes all reptiles, and Class Aves includes all birds. However, a cladistics approach would place birds in the same class with reptiles

Why would a cladistician classify birds and reptiles in a single class despite the behavioral and physical differences between the two?


The degree of evolutionary relatedness is all that matters in cladistics, not behavior or structural similarities. Birds must share a common ancestor with reptiles after another group of reptiles diverged. Birds therefore form an ingroup, not an outgroup, of reptiles.

Biology & Microbiology

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