Crocodilia
The order Crocodilia is a group of archosaur reptiles. There are three living families.
| Crocodilia Temporal range: Upper Cretaceous – Recent | |
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| American crocodile (Crocodylus acutus) | |
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| Order: | Crocodilia Owen, 1842 |
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Crocodilians are the nearest living relatives to birds, because they are both survivors of the Archosaurs.
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 forms, the sister group of the dinosaurs. Now birds are their closest living relatives.
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
- See also Crocodilomorpha for the archosaur stem-group.
Distribution of crocodiles
Wikispecies has information on: Crocodilia.
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