Crocodiles and alligators are supreme survivors. In their incredibly long tenure on Earth, they've endured the worst the planet could throw at them: the impacts of meteors, planetary refrigeration, extreme upheavals of the Earth's tectonic surface andprofound climate change. Each of these natural catastrophes obliterated many of the life forms that existed at the time, yet the crocodilians somehow survived them all. They witnessed mass extinctions and the evolution of new animal groups. They were around for the rise and fall of the dinosaurs, and even 65 million years of supposed mammalian dominance has failed to loosen their grip on the environments they inhabit. In all my research into crocodilians, it is this determination to endure in the faceof overwhelming odds that impresses me most.
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