The only relative of the national treasure Yangtze crocodile, who looks like a toilet bowl into a f

Mondo Science Updated on 2024-03-01

There is a kind of crocodile in our country, which is estimated to be known to everyone, and this is our national treasure, the Yangtze crocodile.

This little cutie was almost extinct a long time ago because of his ability to survive in the wild, and the destruction of his living habitat, and he was finally rescued by artificial breeding.

Its Asian relatives, on the other hand, were not so lucky. At present, all the blood relations in Asia that are related to the Chinese alligator are all extinct, and the only relative is far away in the Americas.

But this relative, if the Chinese alligator can speak, it is estimated that the first sentence is,It's so ugly, I refuse!

In fact, when it comes to kinship,The alligator and the alligator are indeed the only cousins in the same subjectIt's just this look, but it's really hard to believe that the two have anything to do with each other.

After all, we all know that the appearance of the Chinese crocodile is super cuteSome netizens can't accept it at allThis long, toilet-like crocodile is the cousin of our adorable alligator.

To say that it is a toilet bowl is a fine man, I can only say that it is not wronged at all. After all, as soon as this guy's ** is released, it is estimated that many people will need to spend their lives looking for eyes that have not seen it.

It stands to reason that JanCrocodiles live in Asia, alligators live in the Americas, one is soft and cute, and the other is stupid and bigNo matter how you look at it, you can't hit it with eight poles.

But in fact, these two are indeed half-brothers, and even the other brothers in their own area have become extinct.

Not to mention, the crocodiles of the Eagles family are indeed thriving, and there are only these two left, and the others, whether they are in the Americas or Asia, are all extinct.

Both of these guys are the only two remaining bloodlines of the genus Crocodiles, the Crocodiles, the Ringidae, and the Crocodiles, and they have completely different physical traits from the members of the genus Crocodiles.

The ones we usually see,The ** crocodiles, which eat people, cows, and large animals at every turn, are basically true crocodiles.

For example, the bay crocodile, which is the largest reptile in the world, is simply a spiritual sequel to the Cretaceous dinosaurs.

These true crocodile friends are basically grinning, and their teeth are exposedThe fourth lower tooth, in particular, fits perfectly into the gap left by the upper lip.

However, the Chinese alligator and alligator of the subfamily have inherited the fine tradition of smiling without showing teeth.

When the upper and lower jaws are closedBarely visible of their teeth exposedOf course, the bucktooth one is another one.

And I don't know if it was eaten too much by other large beasts in the past, they connected their scales directly to their backs from the scale armor on the back of their heads, and there was no gap in between.

And those guys in the true crocodile family, the scale armor on the back of the head and the scale armor on the back are not connected in the middle, and they are bare.

As for another member of the family of rays, the genus Caiman,They have a towering eye socketSometimes there are some angular ones, so they are also called spectacle crocodiles.

These caimans also have a toothless smile, but this eye is enough to make them stand out from the rest of the Ray family.

How, isn't that a good way to tell the difference?

Because both alligators and alligators have both,Smile without showing teeth, round eye sockets, bone plates connected to the back of the neck and black and gray cold wind wear,Although they don't look like each other, these guys did have a family tens of thousands of years ago.

So how do you tell the difference between alligators and alligators? It's not that hard.

Because alligators, it really seems to be a toilet seat.

Their skulls are almost the same width at front and back, their mouths are short and flat, and the tip of their snout is slightly upturnedThe audience can see by looking at their own toilet seats, and they can't say that they are irrelevant, they can only be said to be exactly the same.

And although they are all members of the Ray family, due to the environment, the Chinese alligator basically only has a variety of fish, shrimp and snails on the menu, and even snails are proficient.

But with the huge size of alligators, they don't need to struggle to eat those hard-bitten snails at all, but crush everything with a huge bite force.

The alligator is fat, with a body length of 3-4 meters and weighs hundreds of kilogramsThis leaves them largely free of any predators in the wildBasically, they eat a variety of small and medium-sized mammals and fish as their staple food.

But as a member of the snail family, it will also do the snailIt's just that they don't eat real snails, but mainly eat some soft-shelled turtles and turtlesBecause of the huge bite force, it is easy to break through and crush them.

Therefore, it is rare to see alligators with buckteeth in the wild, while alligators are prone to small buckteeth.

As long as these stupid big ones can bite into their mouths, they can basically eat them in their stomachsSo most alligators have big bellies and poop and look fat.

We have the impression that crocodiles are ectotherms, so they rarely live in colder regions.

But the only two brothers under the dragon opened the eyes of these people.

These two have to be the wonder of crocodilesAs a result, it has become the only crocodile in the world that can live around 30 degrees north latitudeAnd alligators are the hardiest crocodiles in the world.

If you say, the Chinese alligator wants to make itself more comfortable in winterDig yourself a delicate palace in the dirt to keep warm.

That alligator is, as long as it doesn't freeze to death, it will freeze to death.

Because alligators have different hearts and air sacs like birdsNot only can you dive underwater for a long time,It can also quickly send warm blood to the whole body through a specially constructed heart when you are in the sun.

Such a set of equipment allows alligators in winter to still be quickly charged and keep their temperature at a level that can be moved.

It's not so much a disdain for digging holes as it is not.

Because the alligator is not very dependent on waterSo the webbing on this guy's feet is basically degradedAnd the claws allow the alligator to loosen the dirt more easily.

But alligators can't, this guy is very fond of crocodiles in the water, and the webs on his feet are there, even during the nesting period, that is, digging casually on the shore to fool around.

Therefore, the completely different limb structures of the two also make a difference in their living comfort.

In winter, if the temperature is above 7 degrees, there will be almost no problems with hibernation of alligators, but if it is some weather below 0 degrees,They just resigned themselves to fate, only exposing their noses to the surface of the water to see if their fate was hard.

There are a lot of alligators that may not wake up, and there is no way to do it.

But those who survive the ice will leave more hardy offspring.

Alligators live in almost all of the southern United States because of changes in environment and locationand human use of the natural environment, which greatly increases the chances of alligator contact with humans.

Although alligators will hardly actively attack humans, they live in swampy areas with low visibilityTherefore, it is difficult to distinguish whether it is an animal that comes to the river or a human who fishes.

As a result, there have been some incidents of human beings being injured in the southern part of the United StatesEspecially in Florida, which is "full of talent", there are many such cases.

Since 1948,There have been 257 alligator attacks in Florida, 23 of which have been fatal, with a death rate of nearly 10 percentButVery few of them were bitten, and most of them were caused by drowning and wound infection.

And by the end of the nineteenth century,The aggravation of leather** has led to a rapid decline in the number of crocodiles such as alligators, coupled with the decline in water quality due to industrial development, so the number of alligators is declining in many places, and even the number of crocodiles in some states is less than 100.

Will these former river overlords, like their other relatives, now be on the path to extinction?

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