Crocodilia facts for kids

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

Nile crocodiles

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

Taxonomy

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

Distribution of crocodiles

Images for kids

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  Mounted skeleton and taxidermy of Nile crocodile

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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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  Skin of a juvenile Nile crocodile

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  Diagram of crocodilian heart and circulation

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  Captive Indian gharial basking and gaping

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  Saltwater crocodile resting on beach

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  Spectacled caiman immersed in vegetation covered water

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  American crocodiles basking

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  Gharial camouflaged with floating weed

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  Nile crocodile ambushing migrating wildebeest crossing the Mara River

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  A gharial eating a fish

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  Nile crocodile eggs

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  Unlike most reptiles, crocodilians care for their young even after they have hatched.

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  Mother American alligator with nest and young

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  Young saltwater crocodiles in captivity

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  Restoration of early crocodylomorph Protosuchus

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  Skeletal mount of the giant crocodylian Deinosuchus from the Late Cretaceous of North America

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

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  Aerial view of a crocodile farm in Cambodia

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  Sign in Florida warning of alligators

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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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  Young gharial in Kukrail Reserve Forest

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  Relief of Egyptian god Sobek

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  Crocodile in the mediaeval Rochester Bestiary, late 13th century

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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