Scientists Link T-Rex to Chicken???

Originally posted by sy.gunson
Actually the closest living relative of the dinasours is a lizard like creature in New Zealand called a Tuatara closely related to the Galapogas Islands Iguana.

Oi. No.

The tuatara is a sphenodont. It's close to the squamatids (lizards and snakes) and is regarded as a valuable study in the origins of both lizards and snakes. However, dinosaurs, along with birds and crocodiles, are archosaurs, a different group from the Lepidosaurimorphs (snakes, lizards, tuatara). In other words, the only relations between the tuatara and dinosaurs are that both existed in the Mesozoic and both had common ancestors in the Permian.

The iguanas of the Galapagos are descended from the iguanas of South America, and are true lizards - a Galapagos iguana has more in common with a king cobra than with a Tuatara.