Every Species of Alligator, Crocodile, Caiman and Gharial! (If You're Into That Kind of Thing)

Well hello,

crocodile

s are, I think, the coolest living reptiles you know, since the only dinosaurs left are all birds and

crocodile

s are way cooler than birds, although some groups like Rat types might compete for their money. Crocodiles have been around for a long time. The last 95 million years, meaning they coexisted with non-avian dinosaurs and the T-Rex were almost certainly eaten by crocodiles. Crocodiles such as sarcosuchus, the largest crocodile ever discovered, may have measured almost 10 meters, possibly even approximately 31 feet long. longer and weighed about four tons, but there were many other ancient and radical crocodiles and crocodylomorphs, such as the marine decosaur, which had a caudal fin and fed by suction like a goblin shark or capro sukis, which had the most terrifying teeth in any crocodile. look at those or the herbivorous Croc cymosuchus sukis means crocodile if you're wondering why it shows up so often.

Many of the ancient Crocs were completely terrestrial, meaning they spent all their time on land. This was a very diverse lineage that survived the extinction that wiped out all but one of the dinosaur lineages, we have a whole video on why they survived, but today there are still over 20 recognized

species

of these incredible creatures nested within three families existing in the order of crocodilia, those three families are the day of the

alligator

, Gabriella. day and day of the crocodile day of the

alligator

includes alligators and alligators which are almost all found in the Americas almost all alligators are in the Americas but not all alligators there are two different

species

of alligators on Earth today the American alligator like the alligator shown here, which lives in the southeastern United States and grows to about 15 feet long, measuring about fifteen feet, and the Chinese alligator, which grows to about five feet long and one and a half meters, it may seem strange that we find the only two species of alligators on opposite sides of the map, but the phenomenon of finding similar species in southeastern North America and Southeast Asia is common, a large number of plants and cool animals like giant aquatic salamanders, paddlefish, and soft-shell turtles. many others follow the same pattern and this is probably due to the fact that Asia and North America may be on different sides of the map, but they are not that far apart in the world.

North America and Asia are actually neighbors and in the past a huge temperate deciduous forest stretched across both continents. The forest was inhabited by animals such as paddlefish, giant salamanders, soft shell turtles and of course alligators, as the climate changed this forest shrank considerably and today the remaining parts of this forest are located in the eastern United States and the southeast. Asia, along with the descendants of the organisms that once inhabited it like alligators, this is called the East Asia-Eastern North America intercontinental disjunction and it affects not only animals but also plants and other forms of life, as well as the two existing species of alligators that make up the alligator subfamily.

They are distinguished from their closest relatives the alligators by the presence of a bony septum between the nostrils and the lack of the ventral armor that alligators possess and I can show you this thanks to these incredible alligator skulls, the little one that was super cool until About 30 minutes ago it was a gift from my good friend Dave Kaufman and I actually waited to film this video until it got here because it's cool, of course, it looks pretty small now. The alligator subfamily arrived and I am made up of three genera and six. existing species two of my favorites are the two species of dwarf alligators, the couvier's dwarf alligator like the duckling here and the smooth-fronted king.

These alligators have small armor and spend considerable time on land, which is reflected in their unwebbed hind legs and they are all found in the northern part of South America, as we decided in our contest to decide which is the best reptile. like a pet. Crocodiles are the worst pet reptiles, at least as a group, but I think these two dwarf alligators are probably the least worst pets of all. of crocodiles, but only because they are small and, although we found some smooth-fronted

caiman

s in the Amazon, I recently learned from my friend Chandler how to differentiate between the two, the dwarf kuvier is only a little shorter and reaches the maximum.

At 1.73 meters, just over five and a half feet, most are smaller than that and tend to weigh six or seven kilos, 13 to 15 pounds, they are about the same size as a Tegu, while the alligator of largest smooth front measured 2.6 meters and eight feet. six inches, it's bigger but still small, most weigh between 9 and 20 kilos, 20 and 44 pounds, but aside from size, the other difference, at least the one I realized before today, is that these alligators smooth-fronted alligators should be called the most pointed

every

where except the front-faced alligators. Its neck and back are covered with tall, sharp spikes.

Both dwarf species are well armored, as they are the most vulnerable to predation by any South American crocodile, but the smooth-fronted

caiman

's quills are next level. I just learned a second way to tell the difference. of Joey in scales and tails and this would be particularly valuable if you found, say, an older individual where those quills have maybe worn down a little bit and that's just by noticing the number of osteoderms between their hips, you'll see four of them if you find four osteoderms in the couvier dwarf alligator and only three in the pointed alligator

every

where, but the front belonged to the genus Alligator, it includes the yakari which came in the spectacled alligator and the broad-snouted alligator, which is a radical alligator, these are basically medium size.

Alligators measure between 8 and 10 feet and females are considerably smaller. Still, this is generally true for crocodiles. The spectacled alligator used to be quite common in the pet trade. Despite being a really lousy pet, they are distinguished by a bony ridge between their eyes. makes it look like they are wearing glasses, they look more dignified than the giant cartoon glasses on spectacled bears. Spectacled caimans are also found in northern South America, but also in Central America and southern Mexico, in addition to existing as introduced invaders in Florida. In the United States the yakari came in the larger of the two found further south in central South America it can be distinguished from the spectacled caiman by its location and the absence of the ridge between the eyes the broad-sounded caiman It is also found in central South America and extends to the east coast.

These guys have a ridge between their eyes like the spectacled alligator, but they are found in different areas and have very short, wide, rounded snouts that you probably won't confuse. them with any

thing

else and lastly, but the opposite at least, is the genus melanosuchus which today is made up only of the black caiman. These can measure between 16 and 20 feet long, that is, more than 6 meters. They are also found in the northern Amazon regions. South America, where they are the largest predators of all. If you are in the Amazon and you are being eaten by a crocodile, there is a fair bet that it is this one, however, outside of America and even in some places in America if you are being eaten by a crocodile, it is most likely in the other clade of extant crocodiles, the long lists of this clade include the two remaining extant families of crocodiles, the crocodile day and the gabiality, and I'll start with the gavioliday because that's the one that makes me so angry.

If I were to tell you about a fake water cobra, I would assume that you would think I was talking about a cobra that lives in fake water or a snake that looks like a water cobra but is not. It is not a fake killer whale Water cobra, nor a whale that was falsely accused of murder or some

thing

that looks like a killer whale but isn't a fake

gharial

, something that looks like an agariel but isn't an agariel. Any of you who have watched our video on the ultimate reptile Rumble know that there is a creature in and around India called an agariel.

This is one of the longest crocodiles with males measuring up to six meters (almost 20 feet) and weighing more than 900 kilos and two thousand pounds. Apparently that's still small enough to not be disqualified for a battle that excludes both Komodo dragons and leatherback turtles, but it's still pretty big. The name gariel comes from the nasal protuberance found on the noses of adult males and which resembles a clay pot called an aguera, although it is its jaws that are probably the biggest indication that the crocodile in question is an agarium. Those long, slender jaws with zipper-like teeth are ideally adapted for catching fish, at least if suction feeding is not an option, so agarium, but there is another very similar looking crocodile from Malaysia.

Borneo, Sumatra and Java call it The False Ariel as a zagarial. It has long, thin jaws that catch. They are also quite comparable in size to the

gharial

. The longest skull of any existing crocodile belonged to a false Ariel. Despite all these similarities to Gariel, the fake Ariel can. distinguished not only by their location but by the lack of a nasal protuberance and the fact that the jaws widen near the base more than those of the gharial, which makes them look a little more like the Australian freshwater crocodile that we will talk about in brief and knowing it's a fake Ariel I always assumed that fake Ariels were similar to gharials for the same reason that freshwater crocodiles are similar to them they eat the same things the full scarial is probably some type of crocodile that looks like a little to agariel due to convergence but that is not the case, the Gabriella Day family contains two extant species, the gharial and what I would call the other gharial because the closest living relative to the gharial is the false cereal and the closest living relative Close to the false Ariel is the gharial.

It's not a fake gharial, just like the Asian black bear is not a fake black bear or the alligator snapping turtle is not a fake snapping turtle, the American alligator and the Chinese false alligator is a damn Gary, it's just the other agariel and I demand a name change, but now let's calm down for a second and go to the last remaining family that contains the crocodile and the approximately 17 species of false crocodiles, crocodile day in general, if you are outside the Americas and you are looking at a crocodile without zipper teeth. it's probably a crocodile if you're in Australia it's a crocodile even if it has zipper teeth in the Americas it can get a little more complicated as the ranges of alligators and crocodiles overlap considerably but if you're in the Americas in an area where alligators exist and crocodiles and you really want to know what you are looking at, a good first place to look is the lower fourth incisor on an alligator or alligator, this tooth will be essentially the same size as the other teeth when the mouth is closed, it will slide into a cavity in the upper jaw and will not be visible, but the fourth incisors in most crocodiles are much larger than all the surrounding teeth and you can see this even when the jaws are closed, that tooth is so long. which in many cases would protrude from the top of the jaw if it entered a socket and therefore does not, the skull actually contracts at the fourth incisor, so that the tooth passes on the outside instead of through the upper jaw. and the result is a very different head shape where alligators and alligators have wide, rounded snouts the crocodile has narrower jaws that sink in just after the nostrils again to accommodate that fourth lower incisor the crocodile day contains two subfamilies , the Osteo laminae and the crocodile, the Osteo lemonade contains two clades, each of which has two species, although some analyzes would suggest that some of these species may split further in the future at this time, these clades include the two species of slender crocodiles and the two species of dwarf crocodiles, respectively, the two. species of slender-snouted crocodiles, the slender-snouted crocodiles of West Africa and Central Africa can be identified by their slender snouts, as is typical of animals with long, slender jaws of this type, they are mainly fish eaters, their jaws are They look a bit like those of thin-snouted crocodiles. gharial and the other gharial, but these are found in Africa and are smaller, although not tiny, with males reaching about four and a half meters (15 feet), although most are somewhat smaller and weigh up to 667 kilos, 1,470 pounds , said most weigh less than half that.

That is if you are in Africa and you see a thin, sound crocodile, the best way to identify which one you are looking at is to look at the back of its head very closely, very closely, if it has a rounded tubercle on the scaly scale. then it is a crocodile with a thin snoutWest Africa if not then it's a West African Slender-Snouted Crocodile now if you can't get that close just know that the further west you are the more likely it is a West African Slender-Snouted Crocodile and also remember that of anyway you don't know anyone who knows that there are two species of slender-snouted crocodile if you are in the same region of Central Africa and you see an even smaller crocodile that doesn't have a slender jaw but with a rather short and wide snout, it could being one of two species of dwarf crocodiles, as its name would imply.

These are the smallest crocodiles that do not grow larger than 1.9 meters (6.2 feet) and most do not exceed five feet. five feet and weigh between 18 and 32 kilos (40 to 71 pounds) so they are a little larger than the dwarf kuviers that arrived from South America the smallest of all existing crocodiles but the smallest of all living crocodiles such as the Dwarf alligators are heavily armored and spend considerable time on land and in smaller waterways, where they are less likely to become prey for other larger crocodile fans. The Osborne's dwarf crocodile can be distinguished from its closest relative , the dwarf crocodile, due to its darker coloration, a wider and less upturned snout, and reduced body armor.

Oh, and there is a population of dwarf crocodiles in Gabon that live entirely in caves and are also almost blind and feed primarily on bats. and they are orange, that seems like something you should know, but that brings us to the final clade of crocodiles, the subfamily of crocodiles that contains the largest and most dangerous crocodiles alive today. This is also the most diverse of all the existing crocodile lineages into which the crocodile is divided. two large clades but a single genus crocodilus one of those clearings contains the largest of all living crocodiles and the other contains the second largest and scariest and those are not the same so let's start big and safe for the Finally, as I said the crocodilus is divided into two large clades and this clearing, which contains the largest extant crocodile, is made up of two clades, each of which contains three or four species, the largest of all, the crocodile of Saltwater might be the most famous of all, not only because of its immense size, reaching lengths of more than 6.3 meters (21 feet) and a weight of more than 1,500 kilograms (3,300 pounds), but because its surface area Distribution is very wide, from Australia to India and everywhere in between, while the head is not as long as that of the gharial or other gharial, the head and associated jaw muscles alone can weigh 200 kilograms (440 pounds). , it's just a huge animal, the largest living reptile and that will still be the case even if they bring back the elephant bird and yes, I know, I just called.

Reptiles are birds, but the reality is that crocodiles are more closely related to birds than to any other group of reptiles. If birds are not reptiles, then neither are crocodiles and you would probably need to eliminate the turtles as well, but back to the king of reptiles, saltwater crocodiles have large, burly heads, they are much wider than many of the fish specialists, but they are still quite long, twice as long as they are wide at the base, very different from dwarf crocodiles which are about the same length as them. They are wide, but the most diagnostic feature of the saltwater crocodile is the lack of armor, while small dwarf alligators and dwarf crocodiles need extensive armor, the opposite is true of the king, the skates on their backs are very reduced in size.

Compared to the other crocodiles and they are even absent, especially on the back of the head and between the neck and the back, they also have a pair of bony ridges that run from the eyes to the snout. Its closest relatives are the Siamese crocodile and one of my all-time favorites, the mugger crocodile. Siamese crocodiles are found in the middle of the saltwater crocodile's range, but are generally found more in England and are not found in Australia or India. They are smaller than their cousins, maxing out at around 3 meters 10 feet and 120 kilos 265 pounds. and they lack the ridges that run down the snout from the eyes, they are also much less likely to be aggressive towards humans, so it may be important not to confuse a small saltwater crocodile with a Siamese crocodile if you plan to try petting it or however. , something that would probably not be advisable with either species, the closest relative to the Siamese crocodile is a crocodile that I have loved since I discovered they existed in sixth grade, the mugger crocodile from in and around the Indian subcontinent, this means that the you can find. in the same areas as saltwater crocodiles, although generally further inland and in the same area as guarials Now, if you're confusing gharials and mugger crocodiles, you should probably go back and rewatch the part about gharials , but the raiders look quite similar to their saltwater crocodile cousins, they are smaller, generally a little larger than the Siamese crocodile, so they have been observed reaching a size of up to 5.6 meters (18 feet and a half) and weigh 207 kilos (456 pounds).

Its snout has a rougher appearance than the Siamese crocodile. It lacks the ridges of the saltwater crocodile and is the widest snout of any crocodile in case you were still struggling to tell it apart from the gharial, but that wide snout is quite useful because they like to balance sticks on their snouts and they don't. Do it just for fun. During the nesting season, many birds focus a lot on finding sticks and mugging crocodiles, archosaurs like to help their cousins, of course, trying to grab a stick from a crocodile's snout can be a little risky, it's nice .

It's cool to see a crocodile using tools like this, although on the other side of the clade we find three more species, one of which is the only crocodile found in Australia, the freshwater crocodile, which would be a pretty silly name in anywhere else because most crocodiles are freshwater. crocodiles, but in Australia they only have saltwater crocodiles and crocodiles that don't really go into saltwater, so freshwater crocodiles work as we discussed above. Freshwater crocodiles have long, thin fish that catch Gary equally. Jaws. It would be nice to call these false antennas, of course, like that. The other gharial has already taken the common name, but once we fix it it should be available for these little guys, and they are small at least compared to the other Australian crocodile which rarely exceeds three meters or around 10 feet and 100 kilos, which is equivalent to about 220 pounds, although they can reach about 4 meters 13 feet, so it is still small for a salty, but it is quite large.

Its closest relatives are the New Guinea crocodile(s) and the Philippine crocodile, both places I would like to go in the future. to document as many species as possible for you, so if you want to see it, consider supporting us on patreon. The Philippine crocodile is endemic to the Philippines, where once again the only other crocodile that exists is the saltwater crocodile, now unlike its close cousins, the freshwater crocodiles the Philippine crocodile has a relatively wide snout, it is smaller , about the same size as a freshwater crocodile, but again with a wide snout more like that of a saltwater crocodile, it even appears to have ridges coming down from the eyes like the saltwater crocodile, but the best way to To tell them apart is to look at the armor on the back and neck.

It does not have large spaces in the osteoderms as seen in the saltwater crocodile. The Philippine crocodile was long considered a subspecies of its closest relative, the New. Guinea crocodile, which now appears to actually be three distinct species, including the Philippine crocodile, New Guinea crocodile and Hall's New Guinea crocodile, given that there has been doubt as to whether these are different species, it is not surprising that New Guinea crocodiles are very similar in size and The shape of Philippine crocodiles can be differentiated from saltwater crocodiles again by size and movements and from the Philippine crocodile mainly by location.

New Guinea is divided by a mountain range and those north of this mountain range are the New Guinea crocodiles and the southern crocodiles. They are the Halls New Guinea crocodiles apart from their location, they can only be distinguished by examining skeletal features and subtle differences in scale and that brings us to the last clearing of extant crocodiles, which contains some of the largest crocodiles. big and scary. All crocodiles of the remaining six species, all but two, live in the Americas and are more closely related to each other than to the other one or two, the remaining two are from Africa and have often been confused with each other even though one of According to them, the Nile crocodile is more related to the four American species than to its African neighbor and double, the West African crocodile, also known as the desert crocodile or sacred crocodile, due to the reverence that the ancient Egyptians had for them. , they even mummified them. them and knew the difference between sacred crocodiles and Nile crocodiles, which is important because sacred crocodiles are much gentler than their larger cousins, but we still seem to have a hard time differentiating between the two because, when examined closely , almost all the Nile crocodiles in the Aza zoos turned out to be instead, become a sacred crocodile, oops, now the sacred crocodiles are smaller than the Nile crocodiles, usually measuring between 1.5 and 2 .5 meters, five to eight feet, and max out at around 4 meters or 13 feet, but size aside, distinguishing them from Nile crocodiles requires careful examination of their skull morphology, but if you're in Africa looking at a crocodile the size of a sacred crocodile, it's probably best not to try to ride it or anything like that, in case you haven't seen its skull well enough.

It's probably a bad idea even with a friendly crocodile or like the sacred crocodile. They probably just don't ride crocodiles. Nile crocodiles are not only grumpier but they are also larger, generally measuring less than 4.4 meters, about 14 and a half feet, and weighing less than a thousand. pounds around 450 kilos, although they can grow to over 6 meters 20 feet and weigh more than twice that 1089 kilos, that is 2401 pounds, they are the second largest of all crocodiles and I would say that they are more impressive looking than the a saltwater crocodile, mainly because they do not have spaces in the osteoderms and generally have larger skates.

They are also beautiful with lots of yellows and stripes. They're both pretty tough, but whenever I see a really impressive giant crocodile, it always ends up being a Nile crocodile, but it's not even the member of this clade that I find the most intimidating. The remaining four species are more closely related to each other than to the Nile crocodile, despite being collectively more closely related to the Nile crocodile than to the Nile crocodile. For the sacred crocodile, these last four from the Americas are They divide into two clades, each of which contains two species and I will start with the one I have seen in the wild and save the scariest one, the one that almost ate a good friend of mine a couple of years ago I went on a cruise in the Everglades of Florida with my friends Chandler and Tyler after seeing buckets of cottonmouths that turned out to be surprisingly nice, we came to a pond containing a pair of American alligators, the female.

Let me get so close I could have reached her, don't touch her, but I was pretty sure that was a bad idea. However, this is a very special animal found in Florida as well as Mexico, all the way to Peru, Venezuela and everywhere in between. The Caribbean, like the saltwater crocodile, American crocodiles do very well in salt water for long periods of time and subsequently occupy a very wide range. If you are in Florida and you see a crocodile, it is an American crocodile, but it is not the only crocodile in many parts of its range, so it is worth knowing how to identify them specifically, the American crocodiles, while the smaller crocodiles While Nile and saltwater fish are of considerable size, often growing to lengths of 3.85 meters (almost 13 feet) and weighing 50 to 250 kilograms, they weigh 110 to 550 pounds, as is the case with all species. by Croc. at least as far as I know, males are considerably larger than females and can reach up to 5 meters 16 feet 5 inches and can grow even larger, they are really big, unlike saltwater crocodiles, they have very large osteoderms and continuous on the back and head.

They are robust, although proportionally longer and thinner than those of saltwater crocodiles or Nile crocodiles. They are sometimes confusedwith their closest relatives. They are the Naco crocodiles of Colombia and Venezuela, but it is actually not that difficult to tell them apart. Orinoco crocodiles are just like big, probably even bigger in the past, it seems like they were much bigger, they tend to be found further inland than American crocodiles and they have narrower snouts, the jaw widens as they age and They begin to hunt more animals that are not fish. but until they get very big, I would be fine with calling them false American Ariels.

Now it turns out that American crocodiles and Orinoco crocodiles seem to pose little threat to humans despite their size. Now comes this crocodile, which is a more enlightened crocodile. to us from scales and tails from Utah, just like the dwarf came in the alligator and most of the skulls we've had here today. Scales and Tales does very entertaining and educational hands-on reptile presentations here in Utah and has been a very good friend. to us here at clinch reptiles for many years, including our videos on Gila monsters and green anacondas, as well as our conversation with Lindsay Bull, who we will be meeting up with very soon to see how she and Darth Gator are doing now, many thank you.

Thanks in part to your generosity, I understand they are both in a much better place now, but I suppose we will find out more here in a few weeks the more the crocodiles in eastern Mexico and parts of Central America like it. The closest relative, the Cuban crocodile, can be distinguished from other American crocodiles and most crocodiles by their relatively flat osteoderms. Their scales look more like those of alligators than most crocodiles, but they have a very appropriate crocodile head. Their jaws are wide for a crocodile when they are adults, but they still look like crocodiles, not alligators.

They are also smaller than other American crocodiles, so they can reach up to 2.7 meters, which is almost nine feet, and have been reported to be up to fifteen feet, which is. 15 feet, so they are not small and occasionally kill and eat people, but it is their closest living relative, the pack-hunting semi-terrestrial Cuban crocodile, that I find the most intimidating of all, which is strange because they are not so small large generally less than 2.3 meters seven and a half feet weighs less than 80 kilos about 180 pounds like the more crocodiles have osteoderms very similar to alligators they really don't look much alike, but the first time I went to see Chandler in The Advancedhe taught me some things that changed my opinion of these crocodiles forever and then that same crocodile almost had his leg torn off in areas where they overlap with the much larger American crocodile, the Cuban crocodiles are still the kings of the swamp, as well as of the areas that are really not that close to the swamp at all and the first indication that this may be the case is not even his long, powerful legs for running and jumping on the ground, but his teeth on the back of mouth.

Cuban crocodiles have wide crushing teeth for crushing. Turtles and other hard-shelled prey, but the teeth in the front don't look like crocodile teeth, at least not the teeth of any modern crocodile, they look like dinosaur teeth, like the teeth of Allosaurus or Utahraptor. Most crocodiles today have cone-shaped teeth that are great for holding on when you choke your prey, but not so good for cutting through meat, which is why they tend to bite and roll when they need to tear off pieces in the distant past; However, there were many species of crocodiles that were completely terrestrial and very similar to long, thin ones.

The jaws have evolved several times to allow fish-eating crocodiles to better hunt their prey. Crocodiles that live on land consistently evolved with blade-like cutting teeth instead of the cones of more aquatic species. Well it turns out that the most terrestrial of all living crocodiles and the largest and most highly terrestrial crocodile alive today is the Cuban crocodile and you can see how terrestrial it is by looking at its teeth, little daggers hooked back, many crocodiles are dangerous if you're in or near water or you're trying to attack one, but what? about one that could come out of the bushes, run over you and then jump out and bite you in the face, slashing you with dinosaur teeth and what did I tell you?

There is considerable evidence that they work together and hunt. Now Cuban crocodiles only exist in a very small region of Cuba, they are rarely encountered with humans, but pound for pound and perhaps without taking into account overall size, this could be the most terrifying and impressive of all living crocodiles, but which one is your favorite as always? please like and subscribe and we hope to see you very soon check the account for the record my crocodile skull was really cool until about 30 minutes ago you're okay. I'm getting some ghost pottery vibes right now oh I see what you're talking about.

Would you mind singing? Can't say that's your job, man, maybe sing it to sleep, oh my love, it's okay, foreigner.