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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 and ...
The order includes the true crocodiles (family Crocodylidae), the alligators and caimans (family Alligatoridae), and the gharial and false gharial (family Gavialidae). Although the term "crocodiles" is sometimes used to refer to all of these families, the term "crocodilians" is less ambiguous.
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 ...
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]
The generic name, Crocodylus, was proposed by Josephus Nicolaus Laurenti in 1768. [2] Crocodylus contains 13–14 extant (living) species and 5 extinct species. There are additional extinct species attributed to the genus Crocodylus that studies have shown no longer belong, although they have not yet been reassigned to new genera.
Crocodylus palustris, mugger, marsh or Indian crocodile Crocodylus porosus , Saltwater crocodile or Estuarine crocodile Crocodylus raninus , Borneo crocodile , is currently considered to be a synonym of Crocodylus porosus ; whether or not it is a distinct species remains unclear.
Historically, all known living and extinct crocodiles were indiscriminately lumped into the order Crocodilia. However, beginning in the late 1980s, many scientists began restricting the order Crocodilia to the living species and close extinct relatives such as Mekosuchus .
The American crocodile (Crocodylus acutus) is a species of crocodilian found in the Neotropics.It is the most widespread of the four extant species of crocodiles from the Americas, with populations present from South Florida, the Caribbean islands of Cuba, Jamaica, Hispaniola, [4] and the coasts of Mexico to as far south as Peru, Ecuador, Colombia, and Venezuela.