Crocodilians Fed Their Young

courtesy of poplinre

Crocodilia is an order of large reptiles that appeared about 84 million years ago in the late Cretaceous Period. They are the closest living relatives of birds, the only known living dinosaurs, as the two groups are the only known survivors of the Archosauria. The correct vernacular term for this group is “crocodilians” and it includes the alligator, crocodile and gharial and caiman families. The term ‘crocodiles’ is sometimes incorrectly used to refer to alligators and caiman, or even their distant prehistoric relatives, “marine crocodiles”.

In the the latest post by Darren Naish he writes about the possibility that crocodilians may have fed their young.

As John described in a longer article (here), what appears to be feeding behaviour has been reported in other species, including the American alligator Alligator mississippiensis.

The post also features a video that show a female Siamese crocodile Crocodylus siamensis allows her babies to eat meat literally from her mouth.