Dedicated to Professor Dooley's Mesozoic Webquest

Patrick Henry Community College

Preview audio:

storyj.mp/agkmv6vwww5z

Learning about prehistoric times can be fun and informative. As you go through this, "A Did You Know Book", a series of questions will be asked and then answered on the following page. Hope you enjoy!

Angus Hobson

Did you know?

Believe it or not some prehistoric crocodile ancestors lived on land during the Mesozoic Era. They were in the phylum (basically a division of the Animal Kingdom) called Chordata. This book will look at a few of these running/bipedal crocodiles and their environments. One challenge they all faced was competition with dinosaurs. But read to the end and you'll see a happy ending; at least for the crocodiles!

Did you know that prehistoric crocodiles and dinosaurs were cousins?

Hi Cousin Dino!

What's up Cousin Croc?

During the Triassic period, in the time known for "ruling lizards", (Strauss, 2017) primitive dinosaurs and crocodiles looked very much alike. They both belonged in the family of the archosaurs and lived on land. One of the ways to tell them apart was prehistoric crocodiles had more muscular jaws and their legs were spread out more than dinosaurs.

Did you know that prehistoric crocodiles and birds were also related?

Silly Cousin Croc, you can't fly!

WHAT!! Oh no!

Now that is funny!

Birds are also of the archosaurs family so are related to both crocodiles and dinosaurs. (Strauss, 2017) The pterosaurs flying above them both (having a good laugh) is also part of their prehistoric family! This terrestrial crocodile ancestor (attempting to fly) would have looked like a modern day crocodile with longer legs.

Did you know that the earliest crocodiles were two legged sprinters and may have been vegetarian?

Sorry, I have to run now!

The first true crocodiles lived on land and were small. They ran around on two legs and looked more like dinosaurs than today's modern crocodile. It is thought they also just ate plants because their cousins, the dinosaurs (whom we met earlier), were better at hunting prey animals on land. (Strauss, 2017)