Crocodilia facts for kids
Quick facts for kids CrocodiliansTemporal range: Upper Cretaceous – Recent
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American crocodile (Crocodylus acutus) | |
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Crocodilia
Owen, 1842
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The Order Crocodilia is a group of Archosaur reptiles. There are three living families.
Crocodiles are the nearest living relatives to birds, because they are both survivors of the Archosaurs.
Crocodiles are first found in the Upper Cretaceous period. They are descendents of a much wider group of Archosaurs called the Crocodylomorphs. These, in the Upper Triassic, were slender land-living forms, the sister group of the dinosaurs.
The Crocodylomorphs, in turn, were part of an even larger group, the Crurotarsi, which are first seen early in the Triassic.
- Sauropsida
- Archosauria
- Crurotarsi
- Crocodylomorphs
- Crocodilia
- Crocodylomorphs
- Crurotarsi
- Archosauria
Taxonomy
- Order Crocodilia
- Family Crocodylidae
- Family Alligatoridae
- Family Gavialidae
Images for kids
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Crocodilians, like this spectacled caiman, can hide in water with only their nostrils, eyes and ears at the surface.
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Nile crocodile swimming. Sequence runs from right to left.
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Crocodilians, like this American alligator, can "high walk" with the lower limb portions held almost vertically, unlike other reptiles.
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Skull of American alligator
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Nile crocodile ambushing migrating wildebeest crossing the Mara River
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Mother American alligator with nest and young
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Skeletal mount of the giant crocodylian Deinosuchus from the Late Cretaceous of North America
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Handbag made from skin of West African dwarf crocodile (Osteolaemus tetraspis) at the Natural History Museum, London.
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Relief of Egyptian god Sobek
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The Crocodile stretching the nose of the Elephant's Child in one of Rudyard Kipling's Just So Stories. Illustration by Kipling, 1902
See also
In Spanish: Crocodilios para niños