dragons fall into the class of magickiusites in the suborder donteus needius to explainius shiteus.

@EyeGuy  
There’s no drama here, but discussion tag is fine.
 
As far as I can tell it’s just a friendly conversation.

This makes me very suspicious of Winona.

@I Was Never Here  
Agreed. I just think MLP dragons are too vastly different from lizards, snakes, and turtles to be grouped as “reptiles” the way the pic seems to intend it. I mean, I doubt a chimera can be considered a reptile just because it has a snake sticking out from its derriere.

Should I add “discussion in the comments” or “drama in the comments”?

And this is exactly why taxonomy is super wishy-washy, because there are very few hard and fast rules to distinguish things properly.

@Kolbjorn  
So are mammals, according to phylogenetic classification.

@GekkanShounen  
Acording to phylogenetic clasification birds are in the theropoda clade, so they are basically dinosaurs… endothermic dinosaurs

@Trahzo  
As I understand it, modern birds are basically descendants of feathered dinosaurs.

@GekkanShounen  
Don’t dinosuars share bird DNA?

@Kolbjorn  
But it IS evidence that suggests a particular species probably isn’t what people traditionally consider reptiles. The dinosaurs’ classification as reptiles were debated for that very same reason.

@GekkanShounen  
Some dinosaurs probably where endothermic, so I’d say that is not a proof that some species is or not a reptile.
 
Hell, there is even an endothermic species of fish

@I Was Never Here  
As far as I can tell, there’s more evidence on the show that Spike is homeothermic endothermic. That and his account in Tanks for the Memories suggests MLP dragons, or at least Spike specifically, aren’t reptiles.

@Kolbjorn  
Taxonomy is incredibly complicated. Dragons would probably fall into the order of reptiles, but that’s questionable and would be debated for a while depending on a lot of diffrent things. Reptiles and birds have been disputed a lot over the last few decades, so it goes.
 
Besides that, the world in Equestria would probably have a completely different evolutionary history than we do. So our clasification system probably wouldn’t work in a lot of cases. Any vertebrate with six limbs? Never been classified, so Pegasi or any “winged quadruped” are an instant nightmare and would either require the system to be totally revised or would require you to make an entirely separate/supplementary system.
 
If you absolutely had to class spike, then you could probably slot him into the reptile class without much difficulty. Provided he is actually cold blooded, it would be the closest fit.
 
Of course, is there even any actual mention to him being cold blooded? I don’t remember if it’s brought up in the show at all, and I’m hesitant to class anything in the comics as canon. So maybe that’s up in the air too.

@MadVillan  
You know that an animal class can have a lot of families, right? like cats and dogs that are mammals but from diferent families

@Kolbjorn
 
Rainbow Dash: “But if you don’t have to hibernate, why should Tank?!”  
Spike: “Because he’s a tortoise and I’m a dragon!”  
Rainbow Dash: “Same family though, right?”  
Spike: “No!”

@GekkanShounen  
He’s a dragon, dragons a reptiles

Spike isn’t a reptile, though.

Reptiles are amazing pets. Lizards are some of the best, in my opinion. Have you have had a Bearded Dragon? They’re quite intelligent (for pets) and are lovable!