Crocodiles got lucky the ice age stopped alligators from getting past China, because when you look at this map you can tell, the alligatoridae outcompetes every other groups of crocodiles. It's not even a competition, they only exist in the Americas and are by far the most successful group of crocodiles.
How did alligators even get to China? I thought they weren't adapted to saltwater.
North America and Asia were conected by multible land bridges in the past, wich they crossed (I am not talking about the famous one in the last glaciation period). Aligators used the one, shorty after the dinosaurs went extinct, arround 55 million years ago
Many other groups, most famously Dinosaurs, like Tyranosaurs, Ceratopsians and Dromeosaurs crossed the over similar land bridges.
The early Miocene was warmer than Earth today, and so alligators crossed from North America into Asia at some point during that time, presumably via land bridge. Not surprising, since there were many faunal migrations over the land bridge between Siberia and North America during the course of the Cenozoic.
That's not how ecology works, OP.
gatorbros??
the american crocodile is just a big pussy compared to other crocs.
it gets bullied by alligators, and gets bullied by the cuban manlet croc. freshies in australia would probably be able to bully the american c(u)roc(k).
Likewise all the shitty New World lizards are lucky Lacertid CHADS didn't cross the Bering Strait and absolutely destroy them.
Invasive/introduced (inb4 the "muh allochthonous" autist) European wall lizards manage to outcompete North American alligator lizards, skinks, iguanids such as fence lizards, and teiids due to simply being superior at hunting and living around humans. Once more populations start spreading into natural areas like the one in British Columbia all other lizards are fucked.
>Once more populations start spreading into natural areas like the one in British Columbia all other lizards are fucked
They didn't for a reason. Outside of their native range they don't fare well in the wild
They do in the right environments, Podarcis just don't do well in the typical North American forest that our skinks and fence lizards are adapted to. They need open places like rocky outcrops, sand dunes, and meadows because their active behavior requires them to bask a lot more for enough energy.
They've invaded natural areas in British Columbia where they demolish the native alligator lizards and sharp-tailed snakes, sand dunes/barrier islands on Long Island, and I've heard of a population on a farm in Pennsylvania. Most populations just haven't had the chance to expand because they're usually deep inside urban sprawl and it takes them about 10 years to expand a single mile in the best case, like in Cincinnati.
I want to see what chaos would ensue if you dropped dwarf monitors like ackies or whatever in the deserts of America
They would fare better in Canada rather than in the rest of the continent.
Only Zootoca vivipara, which is the only one which ranges into the arctic circle. The only other ones that can handle cold temperatures (but not as cold as Zootoca) would be Lacerta agilis and a few Eremias species which live in deserts that go down to -20 F during the winter.
I don't think any Podarcis would be able to survive in Canada outside of the Vancouver region due to the climate. Canada itself only has five native species of lizard, all which are just barely crossing up from over the US border. Seriously, if you look at the range maps like on iNaturalist Canada got fucked in the lizard department.
Genuine question here - When did the Alligator exactly become an Alligator? Like what was the evolutionary story there?
INTERIOR
CROCODILE
ALLIGATOR
I DRIVE
Why cant giant monster lizards be friends?
They are as close as we'll get to dragons. They should just mate with eachother and get over it.
They can't, caimans are the morons of the crocodile kind. They're the reason the Orinoco can't bounce back from near extinction.
Alligators are incredibly intelligent animals, capable of affection and problem solving. Crocodiles are murder-beasts with no higher thought or purpose.
I've lived around gators my entire life and they dont scare me at all really, been swimming in water with them since I was a kid and never had any real issues outside of walking up on a bunch of hatchlings one time with mama a few feet away
I dont trust crocodiles at all though, they look at you differently(like potential prey) and are much more explosive with their energy, especially when comparing to a similiar sized alligator
Caimans are cool I guess but Ive only seen them in limited quantities and never seen a black caiman
Cuban crocs are both the species Im most interested in and uneased by though even if they dont reach behemoth sizes like salties or niles
Dont get me wrong though american alligators do have inherent danger to them even if they are considerably more placid animals
I dont believe theyd compete well against crocs though, I think their success has much more to do with being far more cold tolerant able to survive 1-2 weeks in 10C/50F locations which would kill pretty much all crocodiles
The chinese alligator is basically extinct in its native range.
The Chinese alligator was fucked by the ice age. There used to be larger alligators all over northern china and even Japan. It's a direct relative of the north American gator.
I dunno, the croc presence in the gator dominated new world is much bigger than the gator presence in the croc dominated old world
You can only take samples in America, and just judging by how badly crocodiles do over there, mostly due to competition with caimans, you get your answer.
Orinoco and American crocodiles don't really compete as much as you'd think due to the size gap. They both do fine alongside caimans
The american crocodile does better because they can go to the ocean. But the orinoco is going extinct and caimans are one of the reasons why.
>the orinoco is going extinct
Because of poaching. This has nothing to do with natural competition.
>one of the reasons
Sounds like a cop out.
They're not. They've lived alongside each other for millions of years with no issue. The reason caimans have an impact at all is because we nearly exterminated the orinoco croc and their absence allowed caimans to proliferate, making it harder for them to get re-established now conservation efforts are being done
>mogs your alligators
imagine the bloodbath that would ensue if you dropped him in a lake full of caimans/alligators
crocs are just lizards that wish they were gators
Gators cope
>infographic about alligators/crocodile
>'skillset': use a suitcase, an item famoulsy made of alligator/crocodile skin
lol