Crocodylidae

A crocodile or true crocodile is a large, semiaquatic reptile that lives throughout the tropics in Africa, Asia, the Americas and Australia. The term "crocodile" is sometimes used more loosely to include all extant members of the order Crocodilia, which includes the alligators and caimans, the gharial and false gharial as well as other extinct taxa. This article uses "crocodile" or "true crocodile" to refer only to the species taxonomically included in the Crocodylidae family, extant or extinct.

Crocodylidae

Leigh Bedford · CC BY 2.0 · via Wikipedia/Commons. May be a photograph of a specimen, or an artist’s reconstruction — an interpretation of a skeleton, since colour and soft tissue are almost never preserved.

On record

Recorded, not inferred
Also called
crocodilePBDB
Sits inside
CrocodyloideaPBDB
Diet
carnivorePBDB, for Crocodylia
Motility
actively mobilePBDB, for Osteichthyes
Environment
marinePBDB, for Mesoeucrocodylia

Time the record covers

At least 145 million years on record.

The record covers at least 145.06 Mya to 11.7 ka. No occurrence read is dated outside 152.21 Mya to 0 Mya.

Late Jurassic — about 1 of 546 occurrencesEarly Cretaceous — about 1 of 546 occurrencesEarly CretaceousLate Cretaceous — about 39 of 546 occurrencesLate CretaceousPaleocene — about 5 of 546 occurrencesEocene — about 64 of 546 occurrencesEoceneOligocene — about 5 of 546 occurrencesMiocene — about 129 of 546 occurrencesMiocenePliocene — about 76 of 546 occurrencesPleistocene — about 200 of 546 occurrences155–150 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences150–145 Mya — about 0.7 occurrences140–135 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences135–129 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences98–93 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences93–88 Mya — about 2 occurrences88–83 Mya — about 1 occurrence83–78 Mya — about 2 occurrences78–72 Mya — about 2 occurrences72–67 Mya — about 24 occurrences67–62 Mya — about 9 occurrences62–57 Mya — about 1 occurrence57–52 Mya — about 8 occurrences52–47 Mya — about 25 occurrences47–41 Mya — about 17 occurrences41–36 Mya — about 10 occurrences36–31 Mya — about 7 occurrences31–26 Mya — about 3 occurrences26–21 Mya — about 4 occurrences21–16 Mya — about 37 occurrences16–10 Mya — about 33 occurrences10–5.2 Mya — about 60 occurrences5.2–0 Mya — about 298 occurrences145.06 Mya11.7 ka155 Mya0 Mya

546 occurrences of Crocodylidae on record, most of them in the Pleistocene. The Paleobiology Database records this as a living group. Bar height is expected occurrences, not a count: each fossil is spread across the span it is dated to, so a tall narrow bar means tight dating and a low wide one means loose.

When

546 occurrences

These are dates about fossils, not the animal: the record can only begin after it arose and end before it died out, so either end may reach further. Shares are expected occurrences: a fossil dated to a span is counted partly in each period it straddles. More on what this infers.

Found in

132 formations

Koobi Fora — 3.90°N, 36.24°EKoobi Fora — 3.98°N, 36.32°EKoobi Fora — 4.31°N, 36.27°EKoobi Fora — 4.24°N, 36.26°EKoobi Fora — 4.29°N, 36.23°EKoobi Fora — 3.77°N, 36.44°EKoobi Fora — 3.78°N, 36.33°EKoobi Fora — 3.59°N, 36.24°EKoobi Fora — 3.87°N, 36.37°EKoobi Fora — 3.94°N, 36.25°EKoobi Fora — 4.18°N, 36.42°EKoobi Fora — 4.08°N, 36.35°EKoobi Fora — 4.07°N, 36.37°EOlduvai — 2.99°S, 35.35°EOlduvai — 2.98°S, 34.32°EOlduvai — 2.98°S, 35.37°EHell Creek — 47.55°N, 107.13°WHell Creek — 47.62°N, 107.32°WHell Creek — 47.52°N, 106.98°WHell Creek — 47.57°N, 107.10°WHell Creek — 47.52°N, 106.40°WHell Creek — 47.55°N, 107.25°WHell Creek — 47.07°N, 106.92°WHell Creek — 47.60°N, 106.27°WHell Creek — 47.53°N, 106.88°WHell Creek — 47.60°N, 107.23°WHell Creek — 47.80°N, 106.10°WHell Creek — 46.09°N, 100.63°WHell Creek — 47.60°N, 107.00°WBridger — 42.37°N, 108.91°WBridger — 41.70°N, 109.00°WBridger — 41.80°N, 110.70°WBridger — 41.20°N, 110.50°WBridger — 41.04°N, 110.23°WNachukui — 4.25°N, 35.79°ENachukui — 4.19°N, 35.77°ENachukui — 2.90°N, 36.05°ENachukui — 3.87°N, 35.70°EMaboko — 0.17°N, 34.62°EMaboko — 0.13°S, 34.61°EMaboko — 0.15°N, 34.62°EGreen River — 41.80°N, 110.70°WGreen River — 41.20°N, 110.50°WGreen River — 40.50°N, 110.00°WBeglia — 35.00°N, 9.00°EBeglia — 34.00°N, 8.00°EBeglia — 34.33°N, 8.41°EBeglia — 34.20°N, 8.70°EHumbu — 2.33°S, 35.97°EKanapoi — 2.37°N, 36.08°EKanapoi — 2.32°N, 36.07°EOlorgesailie — 1.58°S, 36.43°EWasatch — 42.37°N, 108.91°WWasatch — 41.80°N, 110.70°WLance — 43.30°N, 104.37°WLance — 43.18°N, 104.53°WLance — 43.23°N, 104.58°WLance — 43.80°N, 104.62°WTatrot — 30.73°N, 76.78°ETatrot — 30.68°N, 77.00°ETatrot — 28.45°N, 77.64°EFriars — 32.90°N, 117.10°WIrrawaddy — 20.13°N, 94.89°EIrrawaddy — 20.17°N, 94.92°EIrrawaddy — 21.09°N, 94.79°ENawata and Nachukui — 2.88°N, 36.07°ENawata and Nachukui — 2.90°N, 36.05°EKapthurin — 0.50°N, 36.00°ENkondo — 1.50°N, 31.00°ENawata — 2.90°N, 36.05°ESolimoes — 8.18°S, 70.48°WSolimoes — 10.12°S, 66.88°WPiram Conglomerate — 21.62°N, 72.38°EMaradah — 28.00°N, 20.50°ESinda Beds — 1.17°N, 30.17°E

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The named rock units Crocodylidae has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. 108 further formations hold fewer occurrences each and are not listed. 167 occurrences have no formation on record, which is common for older literature.

Crocodylidae and its relatives

Pleistocene

Where Crocodylidae and its relatives were recorded in the Pleistocene.

Found in the same rock

2,625 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 427 sites for Crocodylidae, and this reads 240 of them. The number is how many of those sites it was catalogued from too. The 24 sharing the most are listed.

This is not a list of everything alive at the time. It is only what has come out of the same ground as this animal and been written down.

Entered from

244 references

Each of the 546 occurrences read was entered from one of these publications, ordered by how many each accounts for. This is not a search for papers mentioning the name. 232 further references are not listed. Entries link to doi.org where the Paleobiology Database holds an identifier, and to its own record where it does not. Relayed as the Paleobiology Database holds them, not checked against what they resolve to.

Media and terms

Media content2

Picture of Crocodylidae

Credit
Leigh Bedford
Licence
CC BY 2.0
Commercial use
the licence allows it

3D model

Source
Sketchfab
Licence
CC Attribution-NonCommercial
Commercial use
the licence does not allow it

The description on this site

Licence
CC BY-SA 4.0

This is what the site found, which is not the same as what exists.

Keep going

What may have been alongside itCrocodyloidea through timeFormations of the PleistoceneThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. (Cuvier 1807)