Crocodilia

The order Crocodilia is a group of archosaur reptiles. There are three living families of crocodilians.

Crocodilia Temporal range: Upper Cretaceous – Recent
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American crocodile (Crocodylus acutus)
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Chordata
Class:	Reptilia
(unranked):	Archosauria
Superorder:	Crocodylomorpha
Order:	Crocodilia Owen, 1842
Families
Gavialidae Alligatoridae Crocodylidae

Some crocodilians are crocodiles, alligators, gharials, and caimans.

Crocodilians 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 animals.

The crocodylomorphs, in turn, were part of an even larger group, the Crurotarsi, which are first seen early in the Triassic.

Crocodilians are the the sister group of the dinosaurs. This means crocodilians are the closest living relatives to birds. They are both survivors of the Archosauria.

Nile crocodiles

Clade

• Sauropsida
  • Archosauria
    • Crurotarsi
      • Crocodylomorphs
        • Crocodilia

Families

• Order Crocodilia
  • Family Crocodylidae
    • Crocodiles
  • Family Alligatoridae
    • Alligators
    • Caimans
  • Family Gavialidae
    • Gharial
    • False gharial

• See also: Crocodilomorpha, the archosaur stem-group.

File:Crocodylidae Distribution.png

Distribution of crocodiles

Crocodilia Media

• Litargosuchus leptorhynchus.jpg

  Reconstruction of Litargosuchus, a sphenosuchian

• Pakasuchus.jpg

  Life restoration of Pakasuchus

• Suchodus durobrivense.jpg

  Suchodus, a thalattosuchian highly adapted to a marine lifestyle

• Crocodile skull shape comparison Walmsley et al 2013.png

  Range of skull shape in extant crocodilians, from narrow to broad-snouted

• Caiman crocodilus llanos white background.JPG

  Caiman crocodilus llanos white background

• Melanosuchus niger white background.jpg

  Melanosuchus niger white background

• Dwarf Caiman white background

• Alligator white background.jpg

  Alligator white background

• Siamese Crocodile white background.jpg

  Siamese Crocodile white background

• Crocodylus cataphractus faux-gavial d'Afrique2 white background.JPG

  Crocodylus cataphractus faux-gavial d'Afrique2 white background