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  • Crocodiles (Subfamily Crocodylinae) or True Crocodiles Are: Tomistoma

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    Dan Chirita
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    Crocodiles are large semiaquatic reptiles found throughout the tropics. They are classified as their own biological subfamily called Crocodylinae. While crocodiles, alligators, and gharials all belong to the order Crocodilia, they are separated into different biological families. Crocodiles can be distinguished from alligators by their narrower heads and teeth that are visible when their mouths are closed. They also have more webbing on their hind feet and can tolerate saltwater due to specialized salt glands. Crocodile behavior and ecology can differ between species, but they are all semiaquatic, carnivorous, and sensitive to cold temperatures, having diverged from other crocod

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    Crocodiles are large semiaquatic reptiles found throughout the tropics. They are classified as their own biological subfamily called Crocodylinae. While crocodiles, alligators, and gharials all belong to the order Crocodilia, they are separated into different biological families. Crocodiles can be distinguished from alligators by their narrower heads and teeth that are visible when their mouths are closed. They also have more webbing on their hind feet and can tolerate saltwater due to specialized salt glands. Crocodile behavior and ecology can differ between species, but they are all semiaquatic, carnivorous, and sensitive to cold temperatures, having diverged from other crocod

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    Crocodiles (Subfamily Crocodylinae) or True Crocodiles Are: Tomistoma

    Uploaded by

    Dan Chirita
    Crocodiles are large semiaquatic reptiles found throughout the tropics. They are classified as their own biological subfamily called Crocodylinae. While crocodiles, alligators, and gharials all belong to the order Crocodilia, they are separated into different biological families. Crocodiles can be distinguished from alligators by their narrower heads and teeth that are visible when their mouths are closed. They also have more webbing on their hind feet and can tolerate saltwater due to specialized salt glands. Crocodile behavior and ecology can differ between species, but they are all semiaquatic, carnivorous, and sensitive to cold temperatures, having diverged from other crocod

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    Crocodiles 

    (subfamily Crocodylinae) or true crocodiles are


    large semiaquatic reptiles that live throughout the tropics in Africa, Asia, the Americas
    and Australia. Crocodylinae, all of whose members are considered true crocodiles, is
    classified as a biological subfamily. A broader sense of the term crocodile, Crocodylidae
    (which includes Tomistoma), is not used in this article. The term crocodile here applies to
    only the species within the subfamily of Crocodylinae. The term is sometimes used even
    more loosely to include all extant members of the order Crocodilia, which includes
    the alligators and caimans (family Alligatoridae), the gharial and false
    gharial (family Gavialidae), and all other living and fossil Crocodylomorpha.

    Although they appear similar, crocodiles, alligators and the gharial belong to separate


    biological families. The gharial, with its narrow snout, is easier to distinguish,
    while morphological differences are more difficult to spot in crocodiles and alligators. The
    most obvious external differences are visible in the head, with crocodiles having
    narrower and longer heads, with a more V-shaped than a U-shaped snout compared to
    alligators and caimans. Another obvious trait is that the upper and lower jaws of the
    crocodiles are the same width, and the teeth in the lower jaw fall along the edge or
    outside the upper jaw when the mouth is closed; therefore, all teeth are visible, unlike an
    alligator, which possesses in the upper jaw small depressions into which the lower teeth
    fit. Also, when the crocodile's mouth is closed, the large fourth tooth in the lower jaw fits
    into a constriction in the upper jaw. For hard-to-distinguish specimens, the protruding
    tooth is the most reliable feature to define the species' family. Crocodiles have
    more webbing on the toes of the hind feet and can better tolerate saltwater due to
    specialized salt glands for filtering out salt, which are present, but non-functioning, in
    alligators. Another trait that separates crocodiles from other crocodilians is their much
    higher levels of aggression.
    Crocodile size, morphology, behaviour and ecologydiffer somewhat among species.
    However, they have many similarities in these areas as well. All crocodiles
    are semiaquatic and tend to congregate in freshwaterhabitats such
    as rivers, lakes, wetlands and sometimes in brackish water and saltwater. They
    are carnivorous animals, feeding mostly on vertebratessuch
    as fish, reptiles, birds and mammals, and sometimes on invertebrates such
    as molluscs and crustaceans, depending on species and age. All crocodiles
    are tropical species that, unlike alligators, are very sensitive to cold. They separated from
    other crocodilians during the Eocene epoch, about 55 million years ago. Many species are
    at the risk of extinction, some being classified as critically endangered.

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