Crocodylians are surviving members of a 230-million-year lineage called crocodylomorphs, a group that includes living crocodylians (i.e. crocodiles, alligators and gharials) and their many extinct relatives. Crocodylian ancestors persisted through two mass extinction events: the end-Triassic mass extinction (201.4 million years ago) and the end-Cretaceous mass extinction (about 66 million years ago) — a feat requiring evolutionary agility to adapt to a rapidly changed world. One secret to crocodylian longevity is their remarkably flexible lifestyles, both in what they eat and the habitat in which they get it.
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