1 Belief in increasing archosaur homeothermy stems from the earlier discussion of the apparent change in posture.

2 There were three distinctive characteristics about the archosaurs that paleontologists discovered marked them off from their antecedents.

3 The find moves several species thought to belong to crocodile family fossils to the archosaur side of species lines, and indicates the dinosaur family had deeper roots than previously suspected.

4 Everest, Farmer said. A similar ability to squeeze out ample oxygen from thin air probably gave bird's' archosaur ancestors an edge over the synapsids.

5 Among the remnants are rare fragments of land life that survived the same period, including part of a conifer plant and the tooth of an archosaur reptile.

6 Archaelogists also discovered a number of larger land-based animals and plant fossils including the sharp tooth of an archosaur and the remains of some ancient conifer-like plants.