Why is the crocodile closer to birds than lizards?

Mentally place a crocodile, a lizard and a pigeon side by side. The scales and silhouette seem to designate the first two as the closest relatives. Evolutionary history, however, gives another result: crocodilians and birds are the closest living relatives to each other.

The Natural History Museum recalls this link in its work on the evolution of crocodilians. The lineages then developed very different lifestyles and physiological strategies. The contrast we see today masks their kinship instead of erasing it.

This is not to say that a current crocodile has turned into a bird, nor that the birds are descended from crocodiles that we know. The branches join an older common ancestor. A family tree tells the separations of a story; it doesn’t simply classify animals according to what looks the most alike in a photograph.