Is an alligator a reptile or dinosaur?
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Is an alligator a reptile or dinosaur?
Though dinosaurs are now extinct, the crocodilians, such as alligators, crocodiles, and narrow-jawed gharials live on, and scientists see in them many characteristics of the primitive archosaurs.
What is an alligator classified as?
An alligator is a crocodilian in the genus Alligator of the family Alligatoridae. The two extant species are the American alligator (A. mississippiensis) and the Chinese alligator (A. sinensis). Alligators first appeared during the Oligocene epoch about 37 million years ago.
Are crocodiles and alligators part of the dinosaur family?
Crocodiles and alligators are, with caimans and gavials, a much more exclusive group than are dinosaurs. They belong to a family called Crocodylia, itself part of a group called Neosuchia (by and large. There are lots of smaller boxes between these groups, but I doubt you want to hear all of them.
What is the difference between dinosaur and alligator?
Dinosaurs and alligators may both be reptiles, but the similarities were thought to be few and far between. Dinosaurs are commonly thought to have been warm-blooded, while alligators are cold-blooded, meaning they cannot regulate their own body temperatures.
Why do alligators look like dinosaurs?
Modern crocodiles and alligators are almost unchanged from their ancient ancestors of the Cretaceous period (about 145–66 million years ago). That means that animals that were almost identical to the ones you can see today existed alongside dinosaurs!
Did alligators eat dinosaurs?
Ancient “terror crocodiles” used banana-sized teeth to eat everything in sight, even dinosaurs. “Deinosuchus was a giant that must have terrorized dinosaurs that came to the water’s edge to drink,” lead author Adam Cossette, a paleontologist at the New York Institute of Technology, said in a press release Monday.
Is alligator a reptile or amphibian?
Reptiles are turtles, snakes, lizards, alligators and crocodiles. Unlike amphibians, reptiles breathe only through their lungs and have dry, scaly skin that prevents them from drying out. Amphibians and reptiles are together called herpetofauna, or “herps” for short.
What dinosaur did alligators evolve from?
Brachychampsa had short teeth and a large mouth that packed more power than those of living gators. These oral characteristics suggest that Brachychampsa may have preyed on turtles, which were very common in the Hell Creek fauna. The first alligator ancestors evolved some 245 million years ago.
Are alligators or crocodiles closer to dinosaurs?
Crocodiles are built to last. Evolving around 200 million years in the Mesozoic epoch, crocodiles have far outlived the dinosaurs. Scattered across more than 90 countries, 23 species of the Crocodylia order haunt freshwater rivers, streams and marshes.
Are alligators older than dinosaurs?
American alligators appeared about 84 million years ago, while their ancestors evolved more than 200 million years ago. The only older reptiles are turtles and tortoises. In fact, alligators are more closely related to dinosaurs than to other modern reptiles.
What animals are descended from dinosaurs?
Short-faced bear. Present days,the polar or frozen bear and the Kodiak bear have recognized the biggest sorts of the bear,both of them showing as much as 680
Are alligators more aggressive than crocodiles?
A general rule that crocodiles are more aggressive than alligators just isn’t possible to make. Alligators can often reach at least 14 or 15 feet in length, which is larger than some crocodile species, but not others.
Dinosaurs and Birds. Although the living reptiles birds are most closely related to are crocodilians (archosaurs), when it comes to their relation to dinosaurs, birds evolved from theropod dinosaurs. These theropods share over 100 traits with modern birds.