American Crocodile

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confused for the rare American crocodile. However, there are vast differences between the two species. Hunted for their hides and the changing of their habitat to beach front property is slowly pushing the American crocodile out of Florida, the only place it is found in the United States.
¡§For 190 million years before the first humans evolved, huge populations of crocodilians, in more or less their present form, inhabited the waters and shorelines of rivers, lakes, swamps, and estuaries of tropical and subtropical lands. Today they represent the last true survivors of the huge reptiles that once dominated the seas and landmasses of Earth for over 200 million years¡¨ (6 Levy). However, ¡§¡KIt is inappropriate to treat crocodilians as living fossils whose inferiority forced them into a marginal ecological role as amphibious predators in a world now dominated by mammals. In fact, they are highly specialized for their particular mode of life and have undergone considerable ...

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snout and the crocodile a much narrower snout- ¡§¡Knarrower snouts usually indicating fish eating-species¡¨ (42). Another characteristic seen in the American crocodile and not the alligator is the front two teeth that penetrate the upper jaw from below as they grow (2 List). These teeth are one of the major differences between crocodiles and alligators.

A not so recognizable difference between the American crocodile and alligator is the crocodile¡¦s ability to regulate saltwater balance in their body. Crocodiles maintain salt concentrations in their body fluid at the typical level of other vertebrates, which is about one-third that of seawater (52). ¡§The osmoregulatory ...

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