The order Crocodilia is a group of archosaur reptiles. There are three living families of crocodilians.
| Crocodilia Temporal range: Upper Cretaceous – Recent | |
|---|---|
 | |
| American crocodile (Crocodylus acutus) | |
| Scientific classification | |
| Kingdom: | |
| Phylum: | |
| Class: | |
| (unranked): | |
| Superorder: | |
| Order: | Crocodilia Owen, 1842 |
| Families | |
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.
Taxonomy
Clade
- Sauropsida
- Archosauria
- Crurotarsi
- Crocodylomorphs
- Crocodilia
- Crocodylomorphs
- Crurotarsi
- Archosauria
Families
- Order Crocodilia
- Family Crocodylidae
- Family Alligatoridae
- Family Gavialidae
- See also: Crocodilomorpha, the archosaur stem-group.
Wikiwand in your browser!
Seamless Wikipedia browsing. On steroids.
Every time you click a link to Wikipedia, Wiktionary or Wikiquote in your browser's search results, it will show the modern Wikiwand interface.
Wikiwand extension is a five stars, simple, with minimum permission required to keep your browsing private, safe and transparent.
