eamazan crocodile

Alligator (Alligator mississippiensis) - Careful croc

What's the difference between an Alligator and a Crocodile? Well, one has to keep in mind, that Alligators are Crocodiles too. But they form a separate group within the order Crocodylia, which differs from the rest of the Crocodiles. Nowadays about 30 Crocodile species are known, just two of them are "real" Alligators - the members of the genus Alligator: the Mississippi alligator (Alligator mississippiensis) and the Chinese alligator (Alligator sinensis). The Caymans are seen as Alligators in the broader sense too. Together with the two "real" Alligators the Caymans form the family Alligatoridae. Alligators are an ancient group of Crocodiles. In the course of millions of years they changed less in many markings than the other Crocodiles. Their metabolism and their whole life is slower than in "modern" Crocodiles. They grow less rapidly and need less food. Alligators reach a maximum age of 75 years, which means that they can get about twice as old as "modern" Crocodiles. It is assumed that Alligators have been distributed worldwide in former times, but then have been replaced by "modern" Crocodiles. Those are more aggressive than Alligators and superior to them concerning their abilities to compete for food. But how could the two remaining Alligator species survive under those conditions? An explanation is given by their local distribution. The Mississippi alligator inhabits the south of the USA, strictly speaking the states of Alabama, Arkansas, North and South Carolina, as well as Florida, Georgia, Louisiana, Mississippi, Oklahoma and Texas, while the Chinese alligator can be found at the lower Yangtze river in Eastern China - all of them regions with temperate or subtropical climates, but far too cold for "modern" Crocodiles. If the temperature falls below 18 degress centigrade, a "modern" Crocodile doesn't manage to reach the water surface to breathe - it inevitably has to drown. An Alligator isn't that dramatically effected by lower temperatures, because it is adapted to such conditions by its slower metabolism. So the distribution range of Alligators is restricted nowadays to regions, which can't be reached by "modern" Crocodiles because of the climatic conditions.