Crocodiles look ancient. Maybe it’s something to do with the eyes, the armor, and the teeth that remind us of the Age of Reptiles. Or maybe it’s simply because crocs are often used as window dressing to set Mesozoic scenes that gives us the impression that they’ve always been watching from just beneath the surface of the water. Whatever the reason for these alligator impressions, though, paleontology has undeniably shown that these archosaurs are far from the “living fossils” we love to portray them as.

Paleontologist Julia Molnar and her coauthors set the record straight in the very first line of their latest paper. “The lineage leading to modern Crocodylia has undergone dramatic evolutionary changes in morphology, ecology, and