the.com/crocodilian
a 200-million-year-old design so perfect evolution basically stopped editing the draft
means Belonging to or resembling the order Crocodylia—crocodiles, alligators, caimans, and gharials—or, figuratively, hypocritically tearful in the manner of "crocodile tears."
from From "crocodile," which travels back through Latin "crocodilus" to Greek "krokodilos." The Greek word reportedly first named a kind of lizard that basked on stone walls, and ancient writers say it was transferred to the great Nile reptile by Greeks in Egypt—possibly built from "kroke" (pebble, gravel) plus "drilos" (worm), as if to say "the worm of the stones." The "-ian" ending is the ordinary Latin-derived suffix meaning "belonging to," used by scientists to turn the beast into a whole taxonomic family.
- bite force
- strongest ever measured, over 3,700 pounds
- weak jaw
- opening muscles a human can hold shut
- survival rate
- outlived the dinosaurs and barely changed
- cold blood
- can go a year without eating
- gizzard stones
- swallow rocks to help grind and dive
saltwater crocodile — largest living reptile, found in australia and southeast asia, grows over 20 feet long
nile crocodile — africa's apex predator, responsible for estimated 500+ human deaths annually in sub-saharan africa
american alligator — over 5 million in florida's wetlands, recovered from near-extinction in the 1950s
gharial — critically endangered indian crocodilian with 100+ teeth, fewer than 200 remain in wild