Earlier quoted context omitted.
Not the clade of 'terrible lizards'. Paleontology accepts the cladistic view and so should a popular science article.
The clade has been expanded well beyond its literal, historic, or popular understanding. Which is why the popular science article is confused, because the articles point is actually more correct from a popular point of view, while being at odds with the technical (but weird) newer definition. Because the ‘terrible lizards’ DID go extinct at the end of the Cretaceous, and what ended up evolving from their not really t…
If someone asked for a dinosaur fossil and you showed them a small winged thing embedded in a rock they likely would be confused too. Wind the clock back 65 million years to before the Cretaceous extinction event. The first bird like dinos appear in the Jurassic, ~100 millions year before the extinction. The time of the dinosaurs was full of small and large dinos adapted to all sorts of niches. In the end the flying therapods were the survivors.
We clearly have different view points, but I've enjoyed the discussion.