How to Use crocodilian in a Sentence

crocodilian

noun
  • This has left the topic of what ancient crocodilians ate very much up for grabs.
    — The Economist, 28 June 2019
  • At one point, crocodilians lived in Alaska.
    — Elizabeth Preston, Scientific American, 16 Dec. 2025
  • Both beasts are part of the group crocodilians, the largest living reptiles.
    — Tiffini Theisen, orlandosentinel.com, 5 Aug. 2019
  • The contrast with modern crocodilians is jarring.
    — Ryan Brennan, Kansas City Star, 23 Feb. 2026
  • The research found that many turtles, crocodilians, and salamanders have very low aging rates.
    — Joshua Rapp Learn, Discover Magazine, 2 Jan. 2024
  • People are married to the idea that dinosaurs have this crocodilian, leathery, scaly, reptile skin.
    — Jason Daley, Smithsonian, 8 Sep. 2017
  • Birds and crocodilians are archosaurs, the living relatives of non-avian dinosaurs and pterosaurs.
    — Jeanne Timmons, Ars Technica, 26 July 2023
  • That would require ancient crocodilians like thalattosuchians to stay close to land, where nests could be built.
    — Theresa MacHemer, Smithsonian Magazine, 22 Apr. 2020
  • So, in 1977, the base launched its first counteroffensive against the crocodilians.
    — Freda Kreier, New York Times, 24 Oct. 2023
  • However, most extinct dinosaurs have hyoid structures that are more like those of crocodilians—a simple pair of short rods.
    — Mindy Weisberger, Scientific American, 24 June 2018
  • Note the size difference between Razana's chompers and those of the skull of the modern crocodilian at lower left.
    — Gemma Tarlach, Discover Magazine, 4 July 2017
  • This creature attained a length of at least 20 feet and is distantly related to crocodilians.
    — Hans-Dieter Sues, Smithsonian, 11 Sep. 2019
  • There were dinosaurs like miniature ant-eaters, enormous crocodilian herons, tiny spiked dragons, the combination of a goose and a sloth.
    — Asher Elbein, Vulture, 11 July 2023
  • There are around 800 alligators at the farm and 24 species of crocodilians overall in the park.
    — Mark Price, Miami Herald, 8 Aug. 2025
  • This lack of testing made sense, because living crocodilians have no complex tooth morphologies to analyse—so why bother?
    — The Economist, 28 June 2019
  • According to the press release, the collagen collected is similar to that found in modern crocodilians and birds.
    — Jason Daley, Smithsonian, 3 Feb. 2017
  • Euparkeria is an ancient precursor of both crocodilians and dinosaurs.
    — Hans-Dieter Sues, Smithsonian, 11 Sep. 2019
  • While today’s crocodilians have unidirectional breathing through their lungs, their air handling does not extend to their bones, which do not have any air-sac cavities.
    — Jeanne Timmons, Ars Technica, 26 July 2023
  • High-resolution scans of the fossil revealed signs that the dinosaur’s meninges and overall brain structure resembled those of living birds and crocodilians.
    — Michael Greshko, National Geographic, 27 Oct. 2016
  • And the animals are more aggressive when cornered than native crocodilians, potentially putting people at risk of attacks.
    — Freda Kreier, New York Times, 24 Oct. 2023
  • Gators and crocodiles both belong to a group of reptiles called crocodilians, according to the National Park Service.
    — Aliza Chasan, CBS News, 12 Mar. 2024
  • But after a wave of massive crocodilians made their presence known all across Florida and Texas this past weekend, experts are urging people to be extra careful.
    — Meghan Overdeep, Southern Living, 1 May 2018
  • On Sunday, Savannah Boan of Gatorland will compare the ecosystems that were home to the dinosaur world and to today’s crocodilians.
    — Dewayne Bevil, Orlando Sentinel, 10 Dec. 2024
  • Younger tyrannosaurs, in particular, likely targeted smaller prey, from lizards and crocodilians to other juvenile dinosaurs.
    — Alex Orlando, Discover Magazine, 1 May 2024
  • Current crocodilians and the Komodo dragon undergo similar dietary shifts during their growth, Sues adds.
    — Brian Handwerk, Smithsonian Magazine, 8 Dec. 2023
  • In addition to 48 bird genomes, the researchers sequenced three crocodilian genomes to pinpoint early descendent relationships.
    — Sarah Lewin Frasier, Scientific American, 1 Apr. 2015
  • Elsewhere in the world, there are several observations of crocodilians—a group that includes alligators, crocodiles, and caimans—duking it out with elasmobranchs.
    — National Geographic, 20 Sep. 2017
  • In Mesoamerican myth, the ancient monster Cipactli, part crocodilian, part fish or toad, floats in primeval waters, like the Hindu snake of residue, Sheshanaga.
    — Aatish Taseer, New York Times, 16 Feb. 2023
  • Several researchers suggested that bony plates embedded in the skin, called osteoderms, which are found in crocodilians and some other reptiles, had fused to the underlying bones of the turtle to form a solid bony shell.
    — Hans-Dieter Sues, Smithsonian, 20 Aug. 2019
  • One group of marine reptiles called thalattosuchians, which are now-extinct, Jurassic-era relatives of modern crocodilians, left behind a detailed fossil record.
    — Theresa MacHemer, Smithsonian Magazine, 22 Apr. 2020

Some of these examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'crocodilian.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.

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