Search results
Results from the WOW.Com Content Network
An alligator, or colloquially gator, is a large reptile in the genus Alligator of the family Alligatoridae in the order Crocodilia. The two extant species are the American alligator (A. mississippiensis) and the Chinese alligator (A. sinensis). Additionally, several extinct species of alligator are known from fossil remains.
The Chinese alligator split from the American alligator about 33 million years ago [8] and likely descended from a lineage that crossed the Bering land bridge during the Neogene. The modern American alligator is well represented in the fossil record of the Pleistocene. [9] The alligator's full mitochondrial genome was sequenced in the 1990s. [10]
Genus Alligator – Cuvier, 1807 – two species Common name Scientific name and subspecies Range Size and ecology IUCN status and estimated population American alligator. A. mississippiensis Daudin, 1801: Southeastern United States: Size: up to 450 kg (990 lb) Habitat: Wetlands (inland), intertidal marine, and coastal marine [2] Diet: [2] LC
The American alligator was first classified in 1801 by French zoologist François Marie Daudin as Crocodilus mississipiensis.In 1807, Georges Cuvier created the genus Alligator for it, [14] based on the English common name alligator (derived from Spanish word el lagarto, "the lizard").
Alligatorinae is cladistically defined as Alligator mississippiensis (the American alligator) and all species closer to it than to Caiman crocodylus (the spectacled caiman). [ 8 ] [ 9 ] This is a stem-based definition for Alligatorinae, and means that it includes more basal extinct alligator ancestors that are more closely related to living ...
Alligator thomsoni is a member of the subfamily Alligatorinae, within the larger family Alligatoridae. It is closely related to the living American alligator , as shown in the cladogram below: [ 3 ] [ 4 ]
Articles relating to the genus Alligator. The two extant species are the American alligator (A. mississippiensis) and the Chinese alligator (A. sinensis). Additionally, several extinct species of alligator are known from fossil remains.
An alligator nest at Everglades National Park, Florida, United States Alligator olseni forelimb Alligator prenasalis fossil. The superfamily Alligatoroidea is thought to have split from the crocodile-gharial lineage in the late Cretaceous, about 80 million years ago, but possibly as early as 100 million years ago based on molecular phylogenetics.