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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 ...
Name Species Country Notes Makara: Legendary sea creature India: Sobek: Crocodile-headed god Ancient Egypt: Represents power, protection, fertility [9] The gharial Gharial: India: The gharial's wife wants to eat her husband's friend the monkey. [10] Sang Buaya Big bad crocodile Southeast Asia The crocodiles are fooled by Sang Kancil, the mouse ...
The largest species of crocodile is the saltwater crocodile, found in eastern India, northern Australia, throughout South-east Asia, and in the surrounding waters. The brain volume of two adult crocodiles was 5.6 cm 3 for a spectacled caiman and 8.5 cm 3 for a larger Nile crocodile. [36]
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 various other groups that had previously been known as Crocodilia were moved to Crocodylomorpha and the slightly more restrictive Crocodyliformes . [ 11 ]
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. [3]
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]
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 ...
Gavialinae is a subfamily of large semiaquatic crocodilian reptiles, resembling crocodiles, but with much thinner snouts.Gavialinae is one of the two major subfamilies within the family Gavialidae - the other being the subfamily Tomistominae, which contains the false gharial and extinct relatives.