Crocodylomorphs
Far more than modern crocodiles — ancient relatives included fast-running land hunters, fully aquatic sea giants, and armoured terrestrial predators.
Overview
Crocodylomorphs are the archosaurian relatives of dinosaurs and pterosaurs. Far more diverse than today's crocodiles, the group included swift terrestrial hunters, dog-sized sphenosuchians, giant semi-aquatic predators like Sarcosuchus and Deinosuchus, and even fully marine, flippered metriorhynchids.
Quick Facts
Key Characteristics
- •Elongated snout and peg-like teeth in most forms
- •Secondary bony palate enabling breathing with a submerged mouth
- •Semi-erect posture in modern forms; fully erect in many extinct land species
- •Armoured osteoderm rows along the back
- •Some Jurassic forms evolved flippers and shark-like tail fins
Fossil Record
Crocodylomorph fossils — scutes, skulls and skeletons — occur worldwide in Mesozoic and Cenozoic continental and nearshore deposits; the Posidonia Shale preserves complete marine thalattosuchians and the Sahara yields giant Cretaceous forms.
Global Distribution
Global — every continent except Antarctica has produced crocodylomorph fossils.
Evolutionary & Scientific Importance
Crocodiles' 230-million-year record demonstrates extraordinary ecological flexibility and survival through the K-Pg extinction, providing a rare long-term case study of a persistent archosaur lineage.