crocodilian

Etymology

From crocodile + -ian; compare translingual Crocodilia.

noun

1. Any reptile of the order Crocodilia; a crocodile, alligator, caiman or gavial.
   1989, Walter P. Coombs, Jr., Modern analogs for dinosaur nesting and parental behavior, James Orville Farlow (editor), Paleobiology of the Dinosaurs, Issue 238, page 47, Mound-nesting crocodilians and megapodes appear to be indifferent to nest-site parameters, but susceptibility of crocodilian mound nests to predation or drowning may be altered by site selection.
   Superb predators, the crocodilians are reptiles, and the only survivors of the archosaurs that included dinosaurs. 2001, F. Lynne Bachleda, Dangerous Wildlife in the Southeast, page 33
   Crocodilians are essentially lizard-like in basic shape and are adapted to a largely aquatic life. ln water, they hunt and eat their prey and advertise their size and location by bellowing. 2001, Patricia Pope Bartlett, Billy Griswold, Richard D. Bartlett, Reptiles, Amphibians, and Invertebrates: An Identification and Care Guide, page 191

adj

1. of, pertaining to, or resembling crocodiles