Living dinosaurs and other reptiles / Живые динозавры и другие рептилии

The way in which living reptiles are related to prehistoric reptiles is constantly being revised, as more and earlier fossils are unearthed and dating becomes more sophisticated. The earliest reptiles, descendents of ancient amphibian-like creatures, appeared about 300 million years ago (mya). These ancestral reptiles were able to invade land by developing a waterproof skin and laying shelled eggs in which their young could develop on land. Together with the dinosaurs and the pterosaurs (the first flying reptiles, often known as pterodactyls), crocodilians (modern crocodiles and alligators) and birds have evolved from an ancestral group known as the Archosauria or Ruling Reptiles. <...>