While most people imagine alligators and crocodiles as being much the same now as they were during the age of dinosaurs, digging into the fossil record shows much more diverse species through time. Semiaquatic ambush predators resembling modern alligators and crocodiles are seen in fossil relatives going back to the Jurassic period, but the group also includes oceangoing crocs with flippers and tail flukes, heavily armored pug-faced crocs, long-legged crocs that ran on land, and giant crocs with tiny teeth and surfboard-shaped skulls.
