CROCODILES AND BIRDS

"Although birds arose from dinosaurs nearly 200 million years ago, their closest living relatives are the crocodiles and alligators. There are relatively few species of living crocodilians. They were once more widespread in freshwater habitats in the subtropics and tropics, with a few species venturing into coastal marine habitats, but their numbers have been greatly reduced in many places by overhunting. Birds have radiated into a wide variety of marine and terrestrial habitats. In doing so, they have adopted a diversity of life forms, many of which are illustrated here. Humans have found many uses for birds. They are regularly used for food, and globally they are widely traded as pets. Because of over exploitation and habitat destruction, many hundreds of species, mostly island forms, have already gone extinct, and populations everywhere are declining, including here in North America. "