On 04/11/2010 12:54 PM, andrel wrote:
> It works the same as you and me being an ape, a monkey, a mammal etc.

  I don't think "it works the same". You are freely mixing up different
terms of biological classifications, namely a superfamily (apes), a
vernacular term which usually refers to a family ("old world monkey", a
family, or "new world monkey", which refers to a whole group of
families, the Platyrrhini) and a class (mammals).

  In this classification humans and apes belong to the order of primates
(which is a higher taxonomic rank than superfamily). Thus according to
this classification humans and apes are primates, but that doesn't mean
that humans are apes (because they belong to different suborders).

  Bird is a class which belongs to the subphylum vertebrata. Theropod is
a suborder which belongs to the class reptilia, which belongs to the
subphylum vertebrata.

  In other words, according to this taxonomic classification, birds and
dinosaurs are both vertebrates, but that's where their relationship
ends, as birds belong to the class of aves while dinosaurs belong to the
class of reptiles.

  This doesn't mean that birds did not evolve from theropods. It means
that birds are not dinosaurs because they do not belong even to the same
taxonomic class (aves vs. reptiles).

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