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Crocodiles (family Crocodylidae) or true crocodiles are large, semiaquatic reptiles that live throughout the tropics in Africa, Asia, the Americas and Australia.The term “crocodile” is sometimes used more loosely to include all extant members of the order Crocodilia, which includes the alligators and caimans (both members of the family Alligatoridae), the gharial and false gharial (both ...
Vulnerable: American crocodile, mugger crocodile, and dwarf crocodile. The main threat to crocodilians worldwide is human activity, including hunting and habitat destruction. Early in the 1970s, more than 2 million wild crocodilian skins had been traded, depleting the majority of crocodilian populations, in some cases almost to extinction.
Three extant crocodilian species clockwise from top-left: saltwater crocodile (Crocodylus porosus), American alligator (Alligator mississippiensis), and gharial (Gavialis gangeticus) Crocodilia is an order of mostly large, predatory , semiaquatic reptiles , which includes true crocodiles , the alligators , and caimans ; as well as the gharial ...
Cladistically, it is defined as Crocodylus niloticus (the Nile crocodile) and all crocodylians more closely related to C. niloticus than to either Alligator mississippiensis (the American alligator) or Gavialis gangeticus (the gharial). [5] This is a stem-based definition for crocodiles, and is more inclusive than the crown group Crocodylidae. [3]
† Crocodylus anthropophagus is an extinct crocodile from Plio-Pleistocene of Tanzania. † Crocodylus checchiai is an extinct crocodile from Late Miocene of Kenya. † Crocodylus falconensis is an extinct crocodile from Early Pliocene of Venezuela. † Crocodylus palaeindicus is an extinct crocodile the Miocene to the Pleistocene of southern ...
Alligators and crocodiles differ in some key ways, from their scales to teeth to snout shape and beyond. Watch the latest video from A-Z-Animals to discover fascinating facts about these two ...
The only order-level taxon that is currently considered valid is Crocodilia in its present definition. Prehistoric crocodiles are represented by many taxa, but since few major groups of the ancient forms are distinguishable, a conclusion on how to define new order-level clades is not yet possible. (Benson & Clark, 1988).
Clark's solution to this issue was to restrict the name Crocodylia to the group containing modern alligators, crocodiles, and gharials, plus any extinct taxa descended from their closest common ancestor. The traditional group "Crocodylia" was replaced by the name Crocodyliformes, defined to include many of the extinct families that the new ...