Biology and Evolution of Crocodylians

Abstract

Biology and Evolution of Crocodylians is a comprehensive review of current knowledge about the world's largest and most famous living reptiles.
 
 Gordon Grigg's authoritative and accessible text and David Kirshner's stunning interpretive artwork and colour photographs combine expertly in this contemporary celebration of crocodiles, alligators, caimans and gharials. This book showcases the skills and capabilities that allow crocodylians to live how and where they do. It covers the biology and ecology of the extant species, conservation issues, crocodylian–human interaction and the evolutionary history of the group, and includes a vast amount of new information; 25 per cent of 1100 cited publications have appeared since 2007. 
 
 Richly illustrated with more than 500 colour photographs and black and white illustrations, this book will be a benchmark reference work for crocodylian biologists, herpetologists and vertebrate biologists for years to come.
 
 Winner of the 2015 Whitley Medal.

A Short-Snouted, Middle Triassic Phytosaur and its Implications for the Morphological Evolution and Biogeography of Phytosauria

“…This widespread turnover involving redistribution suggests easy dispersal across large portions of the whole of Pangea. It may be tempting to assume that the broad distribution of the group is the result of marine adaptations of some kind as observed in some extant crocodylians47484950. Saltwater tolerance, an extreme marine adaptation, is the result of soft-tissue adaptations including the combination of extremely low skin permeability, the presence of lingual salt glands, and special functions of the kidneys and cloaca47, which would be difficult to infer for most fossils.…”

“…It may be tempting to assume that the broad distribution of the group is the result of marine adaptations of some kind as observed in some extant crocodylians47484950. Saltwater tolerance, an extreme marine adaptation, is the result of soft-tissue adaptations including the combination of extremely low skin permeability, the presence of lingual salt glands, and special functions of the kidneys and cloaca47, which would be difficult to infer for most fossils. Saltwater tolerance or even possible marine adaptations were hypothesized previously for the phytosaur Mystriosuchus from the Upper Triassic of Europe based on both morphological and depositional data646515253.…”

Assessment of trophic ecomorphology in non‐alligatoroid crocodylians and its adaptive and taxonomic implications

“…Alligatoroid species were not included in the sample because the current study specifically focuses on piscivorous specialization. Crocodylus is the most diverse and species‐rich genus in extant crocodylians, including 12 known species (Grigg & Kirshner, ) from blunt‐snouted type to slender‐snouted type. A recent molecular study by Oaks () revealed the late Miocene divergence of this group, suggesting that Crocodylus snout shape is ecologically plastic and is not strongly constrained by the phylogenetic relationships.…”

Amniotes, Diversification of

“…Many features commonly associated with birds, such as feathers, the furcula (wishbone), and a specialized wrist joint, were already present in small predatory dinosaurs. Presentday crocodylians are represented only by some 25 species, which are mostly amphibious ambush predators (Grigg and Kirshner, 2015; Figure 9). The major diversification of birds, during which most major modern groups evolved, took place only during the Cenozoic (Mayr, 2014).…”