The crocodiles are descendants of the birds and gave rise to modern crocodiles and alligators.
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How closely related are alligators to dinosaurs?
Crocodilians are not descended from the dinosaurs. The closest living relatives of dinosaurs, and alligator-like dinosaurs, are the crocodiles and caimans. Alligators are not the only crocodilian species that are closely related to dinosaurs and other reptiles. Crocodiles, which include all species of crocodile, have also been shown to have a close relationship with theropods, the group of reptiles that includes all the major groups of birds, mammals, reptiles, amphibians and fish.
Theropod fossils have been found in a number of places in the world, including the Americas, Africa, Europe, Asia, Australia, South America and South Africa. In addition, some of these fossils are known to be from the same time period as dinosaur fossils. For example, one of the most well-known allosauroids is the sauropod, a reptile with a long neck and a short tail.
What is the closest living relative to dinosaurs?
Birds are thought to be the only animals around today that are direct descendants of dinosaurs. Next time you visit a farm, take a moment to think about it. The most incredible predator the world has ever known is actually the closest living relatives of those chickens.
Why are Crocs not dinosaurs?
Their thigh bones are very close to the ground. They are running with a side-to-side motion. Dinosaurs stand with their legs in front of their body. Dinosaurs also had a long neck, which allowed them to hold their breath for long periods of time. In fact, the neck of a dinosaur was so long that it would have been able to support the weight of its entire body, including its head, neck and tail.
What has the closest DNA to dinosaurs?
a turkey. It will be the first direct genetic evidence to indicate that birds are the closest living relatives of modern humans, if the work pans out. The study was published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
Are chickens related to T rex?
According to research published today in science, the closest living relatives of the tyrannosaurus rex are birds. The material was found in a chance find in 2003 and was used to pin down the family tree. Tyrannosaur fossils have been found in North America, Europe, Asia, Africa, and South America. But until now, no one had been able to for sure which species they belonged to.
Now, a team led by paleontologist David Evans of the University of Texas at Austin has done just that. The team found that all the known species of tyrannosaurs belong to the same family, the tyrannosauroidea, which includes birds, dinosaurs, crocodiles, lizards, amphibians, fish, reptiles, birds and mammals. “This is the first time that we can with any certainty which family Tyrannosaurs belongs to,” Evans .
Did crocodiles exist before dinosaurs?
Well, crocodiles share a heritage with dinosaurs as part of a group known as archosaurs (“ruling reptiles”), who date back to the Early Triassic period (250 million years ago). Around 95 million years ago, the earliest crocodilian evolved.
What dinosaur is the closest to a crocodile?
Sarcosuchus is commonly classified as part of the clade Pholidosauridae, a group of crocodile-like reptiles (Crocodyliformes) related but outside Crocodylia (the clade containing living crocodiles, alligators and gharials). American alligator and the South American caiman are related to this group. The skull of S. sanguinolophus has been found to be very similar to that of a crocodilian, and it has also been suggested that it may have been the ancestor of all crocodilians.
The skull is very large, with a skull-to-body-length ratio of about 1.5, which is much higher than the average for all crocs (1.2). It is also much larger than any other known croc (about the same size as the largest known crocodillian, the giant pythons of South America), and is about twice as long as any known living reptile. It has a long, narrow snout and a short, broad, rounded snub-nosed face.
Can humans and dinosaurs live together?
It’s an easy question to answer and it’s unfortunate, but firm, no. humans and non-avian dinosaurs never shared planet earth together. We didn’t keep them as pets or harness them for our own amusement. This is not to that we don’t have evidence of dinosaur-human interactions — we do — but it doesn’t support the idea of a coexistence of the two species on the planet.
Will dinosaurs return?
Several people have tried to prove that they did not go extinct around 66 million years ago. In the meantime, scientists are still trying to figure out what caused the extinction of the dinosaurs.
One theory is that the asteroid that hit the Earth 65 million to 65.5 million year ago caused a mass extinction event that wiped out all life on the planet.
Another theory suggests that a comet or comet-like object crashed into the earth, causing a massive volcanic eruption that killed off all the animals on earth.
