This group is also home to all crocodiles, caimans and gharials.Īll crocodilians are carnivorous, semi-aquatic animals with long bodies and tails, relatively short legs, and long, teeth-filled snouts.Ĭrocodilians are typically ambush predators that lurk under the water ready to grab unsuspecting prey in their powerful jaws.
You can find out more about the American alligator on this page: American Alligator FactsĪlligators Are Crocodilians Chinese AlligatorĪlligators belong to a group of reptiles known as crocodilians.There are two living species of alligator: the American alligator ( Alligator mississippiensis) and the Chinese alligator ( Alligator sinensis).įossil evidence has also revealed several other extinct species of alligator. We’ll also need to find out a little more about alligators… What Are Alligators? An American alligator ( Alligator mississippiensis), one of two living species of alligator.Īlligators are reptiles of genus Alligator (a genus is a group of related animals). To understand why alligators are not dinosaurs, and how the two groups of animals are related, we need to go back millions of years in the reptile family tree to the Mesozoic Era… Although alligators are neither dinosaurs, nor the descendants of dinosaurs, they are more closely-related to dinosaurs (and therefore birds) than they are to other living groups of reptiles, such as snakes and turtles. Alligators are not dinosaurs, but they, along with the other crocodilians, are the closest living relatives of dinosaurs (apart from birds, which are dinosaurs).
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