FAMILY:
ALLIGATORIDAE
A. mississippiensis
A. sinensis
C. crocodilus
C. c. apaporiensis
C. c. fuscus
C. latirostris
C. yacare
M. niger
P. palpebrosus
P. trigonatus
FAMILY:
CROCODYLIDAE
C. acutus
C. intermedius
C. johnstoni
C. mindorensis
C. moreletii
C. niloticus
C. novaeguineae
C. palustris
C. porosus
C. rhombifer
C. siamensis
M. cataphractus
O. tetraspis
T. schlegelii
FAMILY:
GAVIALIDAE
DICHOTOMOUS KEY
[German]
A juvenile Philippine crocodile, although the scalation on the neck is rather unusual. Normally, there are four post-occipital scales, and a group of four larger nuchal scales. Here, we see no obvious post-occipital scales, and the nuchal scales comprise two regular scales on the left but one larger one on the right. Variation in neck scalation (and indeed everywhere on the body) is normally quite common, which is why identification of species from scalation alone can be a little error-prone.
If the above sounds like bio-jibberish to you, don't worry about it! It will be far clearer if you compare the pattern of scales on the neck with the drawing of them. The post-occipitals are those slightly larger scales just behind the base of the skull, and the nuchals are the larger group of four scales a bit further down the neck.
Photograph © John White
ALL IMAGES:
[click on image for enlargement]
Upper body of adult crocodile
Front half of juvenile
