The crocodiles simply carry on
Semi-aquatic ambush predators pass through the extinction almost unchanged, and are still here.
- When
- —
- Duration
- 10 million years
- Known to
- ± 2 million years
- Era
- Paleocene, Cenozoic
Crocodilians lose species at the boundary but not their way of life. Freshwater ecosystems run on detritus washed in from outside rather than on living plants, so they keep functioning through years of failed photosynthesis; an ectotherm that can go months without eating and hide in a burrow or a river is well suited to survive. The same is true of turtles and of the crocodile-like champsosaurs, which persist into the Paleocene. Crocodilian body plans in the Cenozoic look much as they did in the Cretaceous, and much as they do today.