Like, I’m aware of there being exceptions like Penguins, Ostriches, and Bats. But in general, why is there such a distinct land/air split between mammals and birds? Why don’t mammals share the ground with ecosystems of plant- and meat-eating walking birds? Why didn’t we get birds that evolved to slither like snakes, or tunnel like rodents? Why isn’t it (land+sky) all just mammals, where we’d have parrot- and vulture-like bats that don’t lay eggs? If we started the simulation again, might things like this evolve?
I guess that depends on your definition of what a bird is and on where you place the transition between bird-like dinosaurs and birds. Like Archaeopteryx is one of the species in that weird kinda dinosaur kinda bird phase.
Edit: Genus not species, sorry. I hate taxonomy so much…