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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.
American alligators modify wetland habitats, most dramatically in flat areas such as the Everglades, by constructing small ponds known as alligator holes. This behavior has qualified the American alligator to be considered a keystone species. Alligator holes retain water during the dry season and provide a refuge for aquatic organisms, which ...
The Chinese alligator split from the American alligator about 33 million years ago [8] and likely descended from a lineage that crossed the Bering land bridge during the Neogene. The modern American alligator is well represented in the fossil record of the Pleistocene. [9] The alligator's full mitochondrial genome was sequenced in the 1990s. [10]
The habitat of the Chinese alligator is fresh water bodies, as pictured. The habitat of the Chinese alligator is bodies of fresh water, particularly wetlands and ponds, [2] in areas transitioning between subtropical and temperate climates. [22] It lives at the base of mountains, in areas where grass and shrubs are common. [34]
Alligatorinae is cladistically defined as Alligator mississippiensis (the American alligator) and all species closer to it than to Caiman crocodylus (the spectacled caiman). [ 8 ] [ 9 ] This is a stem-based definition for Alligatorinae, and means that it includes more basal extinct alligator ancestors that are more closely related to living ...
The American alligator has also undergone serious declines from hunting and habitat loss throughout its range, threatening it with extinction. In 1967, it was listed as an endangered species but the United States Fish and Wildlife Service and state wildlife agencies in the southern United States stepped in and worked towards its recovery.
The alligator gar (Atractosteus spatula) is a euryhaline ray-finned fish in the clade Ginglymodi of the infraclass Holostei / h oʊ ˈ l ɒ s t i aɪ /, being most closely related to the bowfins. It is the largest species in the gar family (Lepisosteidae), and is among the largest freshwater fish in North America.
Crocodiles (family Crocodylidae) or true crocodiles are large, semiaquatic reptiles that live throughout the tropics in Africa, Asia, the Americas and Australia.The term “crocodile” is sometimes used more loosely to include all extant members of the order Crocodilia, which includes the alligators and caimans (both members of the family Alligatoridae), the gharial and false gharial (both ...