Why didnt alligators and crocodiles become extinct when dinosaurs did?

Question

It is for a school report! THANKS SO MUCH

Answer 1

They were able to adapt which allowed them to survive. It is the survival of the fittest.

Answer 2

alligators and crocodiles are not dinosaurs, they never were, they are described as dinosaur like but they are actually form a different class of reptiles from the dinosaurs.



that said most of the dinosaurs were too specialized to deal with the changing conditions after the cometary impact that wiped out many species. crocs and gators lived more in the shadows surviving on what they could. their simplicity saved them.

Answer 3

Robert Bakker, suggested that it was because crocs were not migratory. They stayed where they were in their particular swamp or river. Before the end of the Cretaceous, the dinosaurs were having some major problems. The number of species was declining over hundreds of thousands of years. Bakker thought that because the number of species was low, they became more vulnerable to migrant species and associated disease. Because of their particular niche the were not susceptible to the migrants. It has been quite a few years since I read his book but he is the smartest paleontologists out there in my opinion.

Answer 4

actually they did. the type of crocidiles back years ago in prehistoric time were probably 10 times the size they are today. they are actually two diffrent species.