Field Museum of Natural History 



Department of Zoology 



CaiCAOO, 1922 

 Lbatlbt Nvmbbb 8 



The American Alligator 



The alligator is one of the best known of North 

 American animals. Even in the northern states, its 

 name and appearance are familiar to most people, 

 whether through a picture post-card from a tourist 

 friend in Florida, the sight of a souvenir baby 

 "gator" or from a stuffed museum specimen. The 

 name "alligator" is a corruption of the Spanish "El 

 Lagarto," which means "the lizard." This term is 

 still applied in some Spanish American countries to 

 the crocodiles and caimans. 



The American alligator is an excellent example 

 of the group of reptiles known technically as the 

 Crocodilia. This group includes the gavials, croco- 

 diles, alligators, and caimans, and a few related forms 

 which have no common English names. The gavial 

 (genus Gavialis), of which there is only one form or 

 species, has an extremely long and slender snout, with 

 a large number of slender, projecting teeth. The 

 crocodiles (genus Crocodylus) include several species 

 with more or less tapering snouts and with fewer 

 teeth. 



Alligators and most caimans have broad shovel- 

 shaped snouts, and differ from crocodiles in the posi- 

 tion of the fourth lower tooth. 



These forms may be called, collectively, "croco- 

 dilians." In all, there are twenty known living species 

 and many more fossil forms. They are often of 

 great size, ugly and vicious in appearance, and wholly 

 carnivorous. They inhabit fresh water swamps, lakes 



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