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A. olseni fore limb. Alligator prenasalis fossil. The superfamily Alligatoroidea includes all crocodilians (fossil and extant) that are more closely related to the American alligator than to either the Nile crocodile or the gharial. [1] This is a stem-based definition for alligators, and is more inclusive than the crown group Alligatoridae. [2]
The American alligator (Alligator mississippiensis), sometimes referred to as a gator, or common alligator is a large crocodilian reptile native to the Southeastern United States and a small section of northeastern Mexico. It is one of the two extant species in the genus Alligator, and is larger than the only other living alligator species, the ...
Alligator. An alligator, or colloquially gator, is a large reptile in the genus Alligator of the family Alligatoridae of the order Crocodilia. The two extant species are the American alligator (A. mississippiensis) and the Chinese alligator (A. sinensis). Additionally, several extinct species of alligator are known from fossil remains.
Alligatorinae is a subfamily within the family Alligatoridae that contains the alligators and their closest extinct relatives, and is the sister taxon to Caimaninae (the caimans). Many genera in Alligatorinae are described, but only the genus Alligator is still living, with the remaining genera extinct.
List of crocodilians. Crocodilia is an order of mostly large, predatory, semiaquatic reptiles, which includes true crocodiles, the alligators, and caimans; as well as the gharial and false gharial. A member of this order is called a crocodilian, or colloquially a crocodile. The 9 genera and 28 species of Crocodilia are split into 3 subfamilies ...
Phylogeny. Cladistically, Alligatoroidea is defined as Alligator mississippiensis (the American alligator) and all crocodylians more closely related to A. mississippiensis than to either Crocodylus niloticus (the Nile crocodile) or Gavialis gangeticus (the gharial). [7] This is a stem-based definition for alligators, [8] and is more inclusive ...
The oldest record of the Chinese alligator is a skeleton fragment found in western Japan. The fossil is estimated to be from the late Pliocene period, 3 million years ago (Mya). The skeleton showed that the species was larger at the time than it is currently, with a total length of at least 2 metres (6.6 ft).
The black caiman (Melanosuchus niger) is a crocodilian reptile endemic to South America. With a maximum length of around 5 to 6 m (16 to 20 ft) and a mass of over 450 kg (1,000 lb), [6] it is the largest living species of the family Alligatoridae, and the third-largest crocodilian in the Neotropical realm. [7][8][9][10] True to its common and ...