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Crocodiles Were Very Different Before the Asteroid That Killed the Dinosaurs, New Research Says

A fearsome killer croc seemingly moving at a snail’s pace, without a care in the world, isn’t lazy after all.

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Crocodiles are the prototypical cold-blooded creature. Both figuratively and literally. According to new research published in Paleobiology and detailed by its authors in The Conversation, crocodiles became literally cold-blooded in an effort to become more figuratively cold-blooded.

Scientists had always assumed that crocodiles had always been relatively slow-paced reptiles. Meanwhile, some of their closest relatives, dinosaurs and birds, eventually figured out how to run. Somewhere along the way, crocs and birds got themselves a shared ancestor that was warm-blooded and had a high metabolism. Odd, considering the crocodile is the poster boy........

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