I'm going to be pedantic as well and say that instead of : > the flying reptiles that lived during the dinosaur era they should have written "the flying repti

I'm going to be pedantic as well and say that instead of : > the flying reptiles that lived during the dinosaur era they should have written "the flying reptiles that lived during the Mesozoic" There is an accurate terminology for geological time intervals, why not use it? I know this is an article for the general public, but still, talking about "dinosaur era" dumbs things down needlessly and it's not even correct for the reason you mention.