Many millions of years ago, the world was inhabited by a huge diversity of great reptiles

　　
　　Many millions of years ago, the world was inhabited by a huge diversity of great reptiles. There were huge meat eaters, smaller, and probably nervous herbivores, and even smaller insect eaters. Some lived entirely on land, some were partially aquatic. They occupied the broad range of ecological niches we mammals do today. This sounds like a description of the dinosaurs, but in fact, it also applies to the crocodiles. Dr. Hans Larsson, a paleontologist and Canada Research Chair in Macroevolution at the Redpath Museum at McGill University, is part of a team that has just identified five species of crocodilians that lived about 100 million years ago, and are very different from modern crocs. Some had long legs and galloping stride, some were probably at least partial herbivores, and they were well adapted for living on land, and some were even more fearsome predators than modern crocodiles.

　　Artist's impression of "Dog Croc" by Todd Marshall/National Geographic