Today’s birds evolved from dinosaurs. Humans evolved from fish. What about crocodiles? They were built to withstand from the beginning.
New research by British scientists at the University of Bristol adds evidence that the powerful crocodile has existed largely unchanged for 200 million years after surviving dinosaurs and countless other plant and animal species that have been wiped out. an asteroid that erupted in the Yucatan Peninsula 66 million years ago.
Their environmental versatility and physical efficiency allowed them to survive the mass extinction and the two ice ages.
“Crocodiles have landed on a lifestyle versatile enough to adapt to the enormous environmental changes that have taken place since the dinosaurs existed,” said study lead author Max Stockdale. “This could be an explanation for why crocodiles survived the impact of meteors in the late Cretaceous, when dinosaurs perished.”
Unlike most animals, crocodiles thrive in both terrestrial and aquatic ecosystems, with the ability to hold their breath for up to an hour. It does best in warm conditions, as the cold-blooded reptile relies on external factors for thermoregulation and can survive for months or even years without food, drawing energy from the sun and sleeping while planning its next meal.
Their body is sturdy and hard, built to suffer significant injuries. In fact, it is not uncommon for someone to lose their legs in a battle for territory, and then lead a long life of 70 to 100 years.
Crocodiles have undergone evolutionary changes, but their transformation has occurred as a “stop-start” pattern, in which changes with large accidents of the species have taken place in spurts in more favorable ecological conditions, according to new research published in Nature Communications Biology.
“It’s fascinating to see how complicated a relationship is between the Earth and the living things we share it with,” Stockdale said.
For example, the warm climate of the dinosaur era was the perfect setting for a variety of types of crocodiles to evolve: giant crocodiles, vegetarian crocodiles, and snake-like sea crocodiles, to name a few. These specialized versions eventually gave rise to today’s more streamlined species, which is why they were nicknamed “final survivors”.