What if the secret of the planetary disaster of survival is hidden in the chin of one of the oldest predators on Earth? New research shows that crocodile people (groups including modern crocodiles, crocodiles and gharials) benefit from their excellent dietary flexibility, both global mass extinctions revealing these two global mass extinctions, a feature that can provide a basis for today’s conservation efforts.
Although their modern reputation is an unchanging “living fossil”, the crocodiles in this study have become adaptive evolutionary masters, able to dramatically change their lifestyle when planetary conditions require them.
“Many groups closely related to the crocodile people are more diverse, richer, and show different ecology, but they all disappear except for the few generalist crocodiles that live today,” explains Keegan Melstrom, chief writer and assistant professor at the University of Oklahoma Central University, a graduate student at the University of Utah.
The study, published April 16 in the journal Paleontology, reconstructed a 230 million-year-old crocodile diet pattern by analyzing fossil skulls and teeth from 99 extinct species and 20 living crocodiles. Research shows that behind the seemingly unified crocodile today is a hidden history of outstanding ecological diversity.
During the dinosaur era, crocodile bones occupied a surprising ecological wall. “After that, it turned into a banana,” Melstrom said. “Aquatic high carnitine, ground generalist, land high carnitine, land herbivores-mixed near-spots have developed many ecological roles throughout the dinosaur process.”
When extinction was about 200 million years ago in the late Triassic period, land generalists—the gentle dietary habits—were popular at the same time as professional groups died. Similarly, when the asteroid impact eliminated non-Abia’s dinosaurs 66 million years ago, the half-time generalists persisted, while the most professional crocodile lomorphs disappeared.
This study may have implications for conservation during our current biodiversity crisis, which many scientists believe is the sixth mass extinction. Although researchers warn that the relationship is oversimplified, species with flexible diets may survive better odds.
“Trying to draw conclusions from millions of years ago and apply them directly to conservation. We must be cautious,” noted Randy Irmis, curator of paleontology at the Utah Museum of Natural History. “If people study mammals and reptiles and find the same patterns regarding extinction survival, we might predict that species with a generalist diet might be better.”
For severely endangered crocodiles such as Gharial or Cuban crocodiles, dietary flexibility can provide a survival advantage, but only when their habitat remains intact.
“When we see alive crocodiles and crocodiles, rather than considering ferocious beasts or expensive handbags, I want people to appreciate their amazing 2 million years of development and how they survived so many unrest events in the history of the planet,” Irmis said. “If we are willing to help maintain our habitat, we have the ability to survive many future changes.”
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