Crocodilians' ancestors grew old slowly

A recently discovered gigantic, ancient crocodylomorph species grew more slowly than other large reptiles of its day, such as dinosaurs, according to the new study, "Origins of slow growth on the crocodilian stem lineage" ...

Study clarifies mystery of crocodilian hemoglobin

It can pogo-stick along at 50-plus miles per hour, leaping 30-odd feet in a single bound. But that platinum-medal athleticism falls by the wayside at a sub-Saharan riverside, the source of life and death for the skittish ...

In the gaping mouth of ancient crocodiles

The mouth of today's crocodilians inspires fear and awe, with their wide gape and the greatest known bite force in the vertebrate animal kingdom. However, this apex predator of today and its modus of attack (its mouth) had ...

Cretaceous croc had steamy past

The death, decay and burial of an ancient extinct crocodilian from outback Queensland has revealed more about Cretaceous Period landscapes in Australia.

Mapping crocodilian genomes

A Texas Tech University biologist led a team of more than 50 scientists who mapped the genomes of three crocodilians.

page 1 from 3

Crocodilia

Filozoa

Crocodilia (or Crocodylia) is an order of large reptiles that appeared about 84 million years ago in the late Cretaceous Period (Campanian stage). They are the closest living relatives of birds, as the two groups are the only known survivors of the Archosauria. Members of the crocodilian total group, the clade Crurotarsi, appeared about 220 million years ago in the Triassic Period and exhibited a wide diversity of forms during the Mesozoic Era.

Although the term 'crocodiles' is sometimes used to refer to alligators, caiman, and gharials, or even to their distant prehistoric relatives the marine crocodiles, a less ambiguous vernacular term for this group is 'crocodilians'.

This text uses material from Wikipedia, licensed under CC BY-SA