

Strange as it may seem, crocodiles are more closely related to birds than to lizards. Birds are dinosaurs, and some dinosaurs have toothy snouts, long tails, and scaly armor like crocodiles, but it's still hard to see the bird-crocodile connection because (modern) crocodiles are specialized for living in water (a bit like archosaurian otters.)
It's easier to see the kinship between crocodiles and dinosaurs (including birds) when we look at the different ways that crocodiles move. Like lizards, crocodiles can crawl on their bellies, but when crocodiles need to walk a long distance, lift their bodies off the ground or move quickly, they can use the "high walk" and "gallop", which are very different from the ways lizards walk and run. (This video was posted on YouTube by crocodilian.com.)
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