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Caimans are distinguished from alligators, their closest relatives, by a few defining features: a lack of a bony septum between the nostrils, ventral armor composed of overlapping bony scutes formed from two parts united by a suture, and longer and sharper teeth than alligators, plus caimans tend to be more agile and crocodile-like in their ...
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 ...
Caiman is a genus of caimans within the alligatorid subfamily Caimaninae. They inhabit Central and South America . They are relatively small sized crocodilians, with all species reaching lengths of only a couple of meters and weighing 6 to 40 kg (13 to 88 lb) on average.
[8]: 7 Its specific name, yacare, comes from the word jacaré, which means "alligator" in Old Tupi and then assimilated into Portuguese. [6] The yacare caiman is one of three extant (living) species of the genus Caiman, the other two being the Spectacled caiman (Caiman crocodilus) and the Broad-snouted caiman (Caiman latirostris).
The black caiman (Melanosuchus niger) is a crocodilian reptile endemic to South America.With a maximum length of around 5 to 6 m (16 to 20 ft) and a mass of over 450 kg (1,000 lb), [6] it is the largest living species of the family Alligatoridae, and the third-largest crocodilian in the Neotropical realm.
Caimans tend to be more agile and crocodile-like in their movements, and have longer, sharper teeth than alligators. [ 13 ] C. crocodilus , the spectacled caiman , has the widest distribution, from southern Mexico to the northern half of Argentina, and grows to a modest size of about 2.2 m (7.2 ft).
The spectacled caiman (Caiman crocodilus), also known as the white caiman, [6] common caiman, [7] and speckled caiman, [8] is a crocodilian in the family Alligatoridae.It is brownish-, greenish-, or yellowish-gray colored and has a spectacle-like ridge between its eyes, which is where its common name come from.
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 ...