【Reptile】(I), croc and gator

        Hanging around in the Reptile Zoo for several hours last weekend, had several hundreds shots in the camera, 70 or so keepers.  I am planning to make 3 posts, crocodilians for the first one, followed by lizzards and snakes.
       

       Anyone knows the difference of crocodile, alligator, and caiman？

       Although they have important similarities that they differentiate from other reptiles, crocodiles, caimans and alligators are three distinct species.  In terms of scientific classification, these three species belong to the order Crocodilians ( Crocodilia). The alligator and the caiman belong to the Alligatoridae family ( Alligatoridae ) while the crocodile belongs to the Crocodilidae family ( Crocodylidae ).

      Here I only discuss the appearances. In the natural environment, it is possible to easily recognize these oviparous and carnivorous reptiles thanks to the shape of their jaw and their skull: the crocodile has a thinner and long snout, V-shaped unlike, and the caiman which has broad a U-shaped jaw. Another difference: in the crocodile, the fourth tooth of the lower jaw protrudes when the mouth is closed, becoming lodged in a notch in the upper jaw and visible leaving.  Crocodiles are larger than alligators and caimans, their average size is 4 meters, while it is only 3.4 meters for alligators.  The largest crocodile is the Saltwater crocodile, record length reached 6 meters, the largest Nile crocodile recorded is 5.5 meters. The weight of a crocodile increases approximately cubically as length increases.

 

1. American alligator，size:  2.4-3.7 meters，longest record 4.9 meters

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3. Alligator gar ，North American local species, carnivorous fish

4.Cuvier's dwarf caiman，the smallest living crocodilian, though called dwarf, they ain't tiny，normal size:1.2-1.5 meters，the longest one can reach 1.8 meters.

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7. Nile crocodile, longest record 5.5 meters

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11.  This one is a question, I didn't find its name plate, it is smaller than the dwarf caiman. Want to identify whether it belongs to Crocodylidae or Alligatoridae according to the description at the top?

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14.Blanding's turtle

15. Sulcata tortoise

16.  I could not help to give big thumb-ups to this elementary first grader who read each animal's description, never stumbled or halted by new word.

This is what the description looks like that the little boy read.

17. Sulcata tortoise

Below are some scary big bugs, not reptile. 

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