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Crocodilians and Birds
KNOWN SPECIES
crocodilians: 27
birds: 10,906
0.46% of our world's living things are crocodilians and birds
CHARACTERISTICS
- animals with a backbone (vertebrates)
- crocodilians have elongated heads with long jaws and bodies covered with hard plates
- birds have hard beaks and bodies covered with feathers
SIZE RANGE
- crocodilians, 3.9 feet to 20.7 feet (1.2 meters to 6.3 meters)
- birds, less than 2.4 inches to 8.2 feet (less than 6 centimeters to 2.5 meters)
WHERE THEY LIVE
on land, and in oceans and fresh water
Here are just SOME of the world’s crocodilians and birds:
Morelet's crocodile
SCIENTIFIC NAME:
Crocodylus moreletii
Schneider's dwarf caiman
SCIENTIFIC NAME:
Paleosuchus trigonatus
Emu
SCIENTIFIC NAME:
Dromaius novaehollandiae
American Robin
SCIENTIFIC NAME:
Turdus migratorius
Greater Bird of Paradise
SCIENTIFIC NAME:
Paradisaea apoda
American crocodile
SCIENTIFIC NAME:
Crocodylus acutus
Snowy Owl
SCIENTIFIC NAME:
Bubo scandiacus
Whooping Crane
SCIENTIFIC NAME:
Grus americana
California Condor
SCIENTIFIC NAME:
Gymnogyps californianus
Guess what?
Crocodilians and birds have a muscular part of their stomachs called a gizzard; they use this for grinding up food once they have eaten it.
Image Credits:
American crocodile, Gerald and Buff Corsi/© California Academy of Sciences; American Robin, Tom Koerner, USFWS; California Condor, Snowmanradio, USFWS; Emu, Larry Rana, USDA; Greater Bird of Paradise, © AMNH; Morelet's crocodile, Schneider's dwarf caiman, John White/© California Academy of Sciences; Snowy Owl, © NaturesPhotoAdventures/CC BY-SA 3.0; Whooping Crane, © Gary Leavens/CC BY-SA 2.0.