On our planet there is a huge amount of amazing living creatures, who admire his graceful appearance, character and unique properties.
Some of them appeared relatively recently, while others are considered to be the most ancient inhabitants of our blue ball. Alligators and crocodiles are a great example of how diverse and amazing can be a the animal world.
According to scientists, these ferocious predators appeared long before the dinosaurs, and their size was so impressive that sometimes surpassed his older brothers.
The difference between an alligator and a crocodile. What may be different
Today, the number of crocodiles and alligators is significantly reduced, due to the normal disappearance of their habitat, destruction of wetlands and prosperity poaching. The skin of crocodiles is considered an incredible luxury and worth tens of thousands of dollars. Because of this, many attackers slaughtered the animals and some species are already on the verge of extinction.
Despite the long history, many facts and interesting characteristics, not all people know what is the difference between an alligator and a crocodile. Today we will deal with this issue.
Exterior features
There are several main differences between an alligator and a crocodile.
Among them:
- The first broader snout and the dorsal placement of eyes.
- Color skins can be different, depending on the region, inhabited by a reptile, and species characteristics.
- When closed the jaws of the alligator are visible only the upper part of the teeth, while the rest of the representatives can be seen the lower.
Individual members of the species for whatever reason, jaws has undergone deformation that led to the complication of identification. For large individuals characteristic of the eye with a red glare. In turn, small members of this family have bright green glare in the eyes, due to which, they can be seen even in pitch darkness.
A real crocodile has a sharp, so-called V – shaped snout, which may differ a unique bite when connecting the upper and lower jaw. If the jaws closed, a crocodile can be seen, and the upper and lower teeth. On the body of the animal are small specks with black color.
They are the original “motor-sensors”.
The presence of such elements allows the crocodile to quickly and efficiently determine the location of his victim. Locating the bodies are near the muzzle.
In addition to the above characteristics, other reptiles significantly more and longer alligators. If you study the characteristics of the area, you can easily distinguish alligator from crocodile. First they live in fresh water of China and North America, while other species are found in salt water.
An interesting feature of the alligator is the ability to dig deep holes in lakes or rivers where subsequently transferred all species, animals and birds.
Features of the life cycle
Adult male alligator seldom lives in the pack, so often it can be found alone, on its own territory. Small representatives of the group there are groups. Large individuals and as females and females, perfectly protect your site and do not allow other animals to come to him. The young show respect and tolerance towards other dogs.
It should be noted the fact that even large alligators with an impressive size and slow metabolism can accelerate to a decent speed on small distances.
In the aquatic environment crocodiles move using a tail. On land they are very slow and clumsy, but if there is a need to protect offspring or to search for food, can be removed great distances from home. If a reptile from the order of the crocodiles develop a high speed, it puts the limbs under the torso.
These predators may emit frightening sounds, which are something of a cross between a roar and a bark. During mating, the sounds become special intense and loud.
It is known that animals are able to grow nearly all my life. In this regard, it is easy to guess that the older the individual, the bigger it is. Feature is explained by the presence of ever-growing cartilage and bone. The process of sexual maturation in small animals ends at the age of 4 years. At large representatives of the crocodile, it happens in the tenth year of life.
What else can be different crocodile from an alligator
Almost all of their time reptiles from the order of the crocodiles are in the water and on dry land they appear only in the morning time or before dusk. Extraction lurk in the night. The main ingredient of the diet is fish, although the predator does not waive any prey that comes in his way. Young prefers all sorts of invertebrates, including insects, worms and molluscs.
Large members of the species safely attack large fish, amphibians and birds. Some of them manage to attack mammals. The giant individuals will eventually become cannibals and is able to devour weak or small representatives of the genus. In the absence of normal forage animals eat carrion and dead birds.
Insights
And although the exterior features have many similarities, to distinguish a crocodile from an alligator is still possible.
It is sufficient to consider the following factors:
- Crocodiles may differ from gators big sizes;
- Crocodiles snout is long and narrow, and alligators tapered and blunt;
- The species diversity of crocodiles wider, and at this point in the wild there are about 13 species of this predator. Alligators are separated only into two types;
- Alligator can be found only on the territory of the people’s Republic of China and North America. Other crocodiles live in Africa, Asia, and Australia, and in America, and they are able to live in salty waters;
- Crocodiles have special glandsthat excrete the excess salt. Alligators have this feature missing.
In conclusion, we can say that between crocodiles and alligators still have a lot of differences that are visible even to an inexperienced person.
