DINOSAURS VS. FLYING AND SWIMMING REPTILESThe name dinosaur is Greek for “terrible lizard.” It was coined by the British anatomist Richard Owen in 1842. Interestingly, Owen's expressed purpose for creating the new taxonomical order, Dinosauria, was to debunk evolution. Since these monstrous creatures had gone extinct long ago, Owen argued, the gradual progression from primitive to advanced species claimed by evolutionists must be false. “Dinosaur” is the name informally given to a group of reptiles, widely thought to have become extinct, that were once dominant on the earth. Unlike most reptiles, dinosaurs walked with their legs directly below their hips. This is different from most modern lizards or crocodiles where the top section of the limb is splayed out horizontally from the body and the lower section goes from the "knee" joint straight down to the ground. However a few dinosaur species, like Triceratops, exhibit a similar “sprawl.” While dinosaurs were dominant on the earth, other reptiles were prominent in the skies and seas. Great Flying Reptiles include Quetzalcoatlus with a huge 14.4 m (48 ft) wingspread, the long-tailed Rhamphorhynchus and the famous Pterodactyl. Great Swimming Reptiles were also prevalent on the early earth like the giant marine lizard, Mososaurus, the smaller, dolphin-like Icthyosaur and the ferocious Kronosaur (right). These two groups are often considered with the dinosaurs though they are classified differently. Other reptiles are thought by evolutionists to have predated dinosaurs, like the sail lizard Dimetrodon, (left) whose bony crest resembled the Spinosaurus. Creationist scientists believe that all these reptiles co-existed and that early earth conditions contributed to varieties of these terrible lizards growing so big. Although modern lizards are anatomically different from the dinosaurs, many exhibit the same external features.