Crocodilians

This group gathers Reptiles subcategory members belonging to the order Crocodilia, the crocodilians, the largest living reptiles and the closest living relatives of birds among the reptiles gathered in this atlas. It spans true crocodiles such as the saltwater crocodile, the largest living reptile of any kind, the Nile crocodile, the American crocodile and the small, critically endangered Cuban crocodile, the American and Chinese alligators, the broader-snouted and generally less aggressive of the group, and the gharial, a fish-eating specialist immediately recognizable by its extremely long, narrow snout, alongside the caimans of Central and South America such as the spectacled caiman and the mugger and Orinoco crocodiles of South Asia and South America respectively. Every species here is a semi-aquatic ambush predator with a muscular tail used for swimming, valved nostrils and ears that seal underwater, and a bite force among the strongest measured in any living animal, paired paradoxically with jaw-opening muscles weak enough that a crocodilian's mouth can often be held shut by hand.