But, what did these skeletal features look like throughout the dinosaur lineage?

We'll answer this question by mapping each feature on this cladogram.

Start by clicking on the circle indicated by the green arrow.

You just clicked on the first feature in the feature bar.

We will use this feature bar to navigate through each of the skeletal features.

The first feature we will investigate is bipedal stance.

Here we see an illustration of each of our representative animals.

Bipedalism is seen throughout the dinosaur lineage.

Bipedalism appeared very early, but was then lost in some dinosaurs like Triceratops.

Notice the blinking symbol on the cladogram.

The symbol represents bipedalism.

Where it is placed on the cladogram represents the earliest appearance of bipedalism.

We can infer that bipedalism appeared in the ancestors of this lineage, so placing the feature here indicates that it was present in this lineage from the start.

Let’s see how the next feature is mapped.

Click on the second circle on the feature bar to learn more.