Are crocodiles living dinosaurs?

Crocodilians—scaly, carnivorous reptiles that include crocodiles, alligators, caimans, and gharials—are descendents of the archosaurs who lived on Earth with the dinosaurs 200 years ago. Today’s modern crocodiles are semi-aquatic predators that have remained relatively unchanged since the Triassic period. Besides birds, they are the dinosaurs’ closest living relatives.

This is an American alligator. Alligators are different from crocodiles in several ways, but the easiest way to tell them apart is their snouts. Alligators have wider snouts compared to a crocodile’s narrower, V-shaped snout.