How large does a crocodile/alligator have to be before it is large enough to be considered a dinosaur?

Size, while being a partial factor to determining what is and is not a dinosaur, is not enough for a simple classification of a crocodile or alligator to be deemed a dinosaur.

There are many types of ways in which something gets classified in taxonomy. To keep from going into all the details about what makes up Phylum Cordata and Class Reptilia and Infraclass Archosauromorpha, then the differences that occurs between the Superorder Dinosauria and Superorder Crocodylomorpha, let us recognize that taxonomy is a boring subject to me and I intend to skirt over the specific details.

The fact of the matter is that what is called a dinosaur cannot be what is seen as today's crocodiles and alligators, as well as other currently existing relatives (i.e. caiman and gharial). Their distant prehistoric relatives may have been known as terrible lizards, but modern day creatures are nothing more than watered down shams of their ancestors.

Wow now here is a find!
From ucmp.berkley.edu/diapsids/archosauria.html


The ancestral archosaurs probably originated some 250 million years or so ago, in the late Permian period. Their descendants (such as the dinosaurs) dominated the realm of the terrestrial vertebrates for a majority of the Mesozoic Era. Today, only the birds and crocodilians exist to provide a glimpse into the past glory of archosaurs.

	Chicken Nugget -  4225 pts -  (2 years ago)
	Comments should be reserved for the comment feature... Furthermore, saying that avids and crocodylomorphas are related to archosauromorphas only reiterates what I already said. The sole contribution of saying birds are related to dinosaurs is something I neglected because I figured a question about crocodiles/alligators really had no purpose to mention that fact.

	comment kid -  722 pts -  (2 years ago)
	The Berkley website is saying crocs are dinos. They aren't related they are dinosaurs.

	felixthecat -  4794 pts -  (2 years ago)
	Crocodiles are not dinosaurs. They share a common ancestor, the archosaurs. Go back a bit farther, and humans and dinosaurs share a common ancestor with fish. Does that make us all fish?

crocodiles and alligators are not dinosaurs....
Never will be, never were.