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Creators/Authors contains: "Godoy PL, Turner AH"

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  1. null (Ed.)
    Crocodylians are currently facing evolutionary decline. This is evinced by the rich fossil record of their extinct relatives, crocodylomorphs, which show not only significantly higher levels of biodiversity in the past but also remarkable morphological disparity and higher ecological diversity. In terms of body size, crocodylians are mostly large animals (>2m), especially when com-pared to other extant reptiles. In contrast, extinct crocodylomorphs exhibited a 10-fold range in body sizes, with early terrestrial forms often quite small.Recent research has shed new light on the tempo and mode of crocodylomorph body size evolution,demonstrating a close relationship with ecology, in which physiological constraints contribute to the larger sizes of marine species. Abiotic environmental factors can also play an important role with in individual subgroups. Crocodylians, for instance,have been experiencing an average size increase during Cenozoic, which seems to be related to along-term process of global cooling. 
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