Crocodilia

“ The genus, therefore, among fossil reptiles is practically the unit, and we may be sure that for every well-defined genus we discover there existed numerous minor variations, which, had we the living animals to study, we should call species. We classify the living Crocodilia into two families, about four well-defined genera—perhaps even five or six—and about twenty-five species. Of the living lizards there are about eighteen hundred species, twenty families, and four larger groups or suborders. ”

“ This family is probably older than either of the other living ones, and is the only one known with certainty to have lived during much of the Cretaceous times, several species of considerable size having been found in New Jersey and Europe. Their feet are better webbed than are those of the true crocodiles and alligators, the front feet partly, the hind feet wholly so. In general structure they seem to be the most primitive of the living Crocodilia, and may have been the ancestors of all modern forms. ”

“ The order Crocodilia contains, of course, the true crocodiles which are found both in the Old and New Worlds. It contains besides the alligators (which are peculiar to America) , as well as the long and slender-snouted gavials which are now found only in India and Australia. At one time the number of kinds of this order was very much greater than at present, and interesting structural modifications have taken place in it during the course of ages, as will be pointed out later. ”

“ The attempt to discover the limits within which this remarkable exoskeleton is to be found, led me to look, more critically than I had previously done, into the arrangement and specific characterization of the recent Crocodilia. ”

“ The skull of the Crocodilia invariably lacks the postfrontals, supratemporals, epipterygoids, tabulars, septomaxillae, and parietal foramen, and the paroccipital is fused with the exoccipital. The parietals and frontals are fused in the midline. The supraoccipital is a triangular bone, excluded from the foramen magnum. The quadratojugals take part in the formation of the lateral temporal opening, narrow bones between the quadrates and jugals extending forward to meet the postorbitals. ”

“ The order of reptiles to which the name Crocodilia is technically applied comprises less than twenty-five living species, popularly known as crocodiles, alligators, caimans, and gavials. They are often of great size, ugly and repulsive in appearance, cruel and vicious in habit, wholly carnivorous, and denizens, almost exclusively, of fresh-water lakes or rivers in tropical and subtropical regions; a few only venture into the sea near the shores. ”

“ The name Mesosuchia, meaning “middle crocodiles,” by which the ancient members of the Crocodilia have generally been known, was given by Huxley in the belief that they were intermediate between the “true” or modern crocodiles and an ancient group which he united with the order under the name “Parasuchia.” A fuller and better knowledge of the members of this last group has proved very conclusively that they are really less allied to the crocodiles than are some other orders of reptiles, the dinosaurs for instance, and should be properly classed by [Pg 205] themselves as a distinct order. ”

“ Imperfectly known in the early reptiles, they have been recognized in the Temnospondyli, Cotylosauria, and Theromorpha, articulating as in the Crocodilia (Fig. 69) below with the basisphenoid, above with the parietal, back of the optic foramen, whence the name postoptics given to them by Cope. Between them and the proötics is the foramen for the fifth nerve. They form the lateral brain-case in the Crocodilia, but are absent in the Chelonia and snakes. In the lizards they are imperfectly ossified, and are usually lost in prepared specimens. ”

“ The crocodile gives his name to his order, crocodilia; which order, happily for human convenience, has but few representatives. The characteristics of this order are: aquatic habits, firmly planted teeth, skin thick and furnished with armor-plates, a long tail, four short legs, and feet with toes. The crocodile’s limbs are muscular and active, well articulated or put together, and end in fingers or toes, whichever we may choose to call them. The strong, bony plates are chiefly on the creature’s back. ”

“ Internal nares carried far back in the mouth by the union of the maxillae and palatines, and in the later forms the pterygoids also. Premaxillae never much elongate, the external nares terminal. Acetabulum formed by ilium and ischium only, the so-called pubes (? prepubes) excluded and not meeting in a median symphysis. Phalanges of fourth and fifth digits reduced; calcaneum elongate. Two sacral vertebrae.
The Crocodilia are at once distinguished from all other reptiles by the structure of the palate and pelvis. There is not a very great diversity of structure among the known forms. ”

“ Crocodilia, classification of, i. 100
CROCODILIA, ii. 405
⁠general remarks on the distribution of, ii. 406
⁠fossil, ii. 407
CROCODILIDÆ, ii. 406
Crocodilurus ii. 390
Crocodilus, ii. 406
Crook-billed plovers of New Zealand, i. 456
Crossarchus, ii. 195
Crossochilus, ii. 451
Crossodactylus, ii. 419
Crossoptilon, ii. 340
Crossopus, ii. 191
CROTALIDÆ, ii. ”

“ All crocodilians are great, ungainly reptiles, having broad, depressed bodies, short legs, and long, powerful, and wonderfully flexible tails which are compressed—that is, flattened sideways. Upon the upper surface of the tail lie two jagged or saw-toothed crests, which unite near the middle of the appendage, continuing in a single row to the extremity. ”

“ Is it not curious to think that in the London and Hampshire basin countless remains should have been found, in the clay and sand, of every species of this crocodilian race, though now not one exists in Europe, and the habitats of the three chief varieties are so widely separated—thousands of miles of land and ocean intervening between each! ”

“ Owen, of the dental apparatus of the Crocodilians, is to be found in the Cyclop. Anat. Art. Teeth.
[600] See Brit. Assoc. Rep. 1844, Sect. p. 50; and 1847, Sect, p. 65.
[601] Cuvier, Oss. Foss. tom. v. p. 153; on the fossil Crocodiles of Honfleur, which comprise both the types alluded to in the text.
Vertebræ of two species of Crocodilians or Alligators have been found in the cretaceous Green Sand of the United States: these are of the true procœlian [602] type, as in the existing species; but they present peculiar characters in the modification of the apophyses. ”

“ One or two species of harmless snakes are found as far eastwards as Fiji and Samoa. No land reptile of any kind exists in Tahiti or in Hawaii. Perhaps the biggest Crocodile in the world [5] (Crocodilus porosus) is found in all the great Malay Islands, and its range extends through New Guinea to the Solomon archipelago and Fiji, and to the extreme north coast of Australia. A much smaller—barely 7 feet long—crocodile with a long, narrow muzzle is found in northern and north-eastern Australia, and is quite harmless. Borneo has a peculiar gavial (fish-eating crocodile) with a very narrow snout. ”

“ I'll instantly steal forth the Prince Giovanni,
And make for Padua. You two with your old mother,
And young Marcello that attends on Florence,
If you can work him to it, follow me:
I will advance you all:—for you, Vittoria,
Think of a duchess' title.
Flam. Lo you, sister!—
Stay, my lord; I'll tell you a tale. The crocodile, which lives in the river Nilus, hath a worm breeds i' the teeth of't, which puts it to extreme anguish: a little bird, no bigger than a wren, is barber-surgeon to this crocodile; flies into the jaws of't, picks out the worm, and brings present remedy. ”

“ Of a bulk truly formidable from 18 to 28 feet long, they are universally dreaded; always on the watch, with activity and appetite ever ready, the Crocodile lets slip no opportunity of committing his depredations on animal nature; the water is his proper element, but if his voracity has caused a scarcity of game here, hid among the reeds, he lies in wait on the banks of the river, expecting the approach of some thirsty animal, compelled by the heat to regale nature with a lap of water, then the Crocodile immediately seizes upon, and pulls down his prey ”

“ Of the crocodile the nature is as follows:--during the four most wintry months this creature eats nothing: she has four feet and is an animal belonging to the land and the water both; for she produces and hatches eggs on the land, and the most part of the day she remains upon dry land, but the whole of the night in the river, for the water in truth is warmer than the unclouded open air and the dew. Of all the mortal creatures of which we have knowledge this grows to the greatest bulk from the smallest beginning ”

“ Little Alice is in the drawing-room, and she will be delighted to hear about that crocodile.' 'Bless my soul, Osborne, you are too bad! The only crocodile I ever had an encounter with was one that escaped from the Japanese village at the Alexandra Palace, and took to the reedy shores and uninhabited islands of the New River at Wood Green. They had been trying to catch him with a kedge-anchor baited with the flesh of bailiffs; but the beast would not bite. The reptile naturally had an objection to a man in possession. I called upon the Mayor of Wood Green--' 'No, no, no! ”

“ Are there, then, two or more species of Crocodile in Egypt, as Geoffroy St.-Hilaire supposed?
With regard to the distribution of the species of Crocodilus, C. vulgaris, C. marginatus, and C. suchus (?) appear to be exclusively African; all the crocodiles from other parts of the Eastern hemisphere, which I have met with, belong, as I have stated above, either to C. biporcatus or C. bombifrons, both of which species are found in the Ganges. Crocodilus galeatus appears to be peculiar to Siam. Crocodilus Americanus and C. rhombifer are undoubtedly American. ”

“ I cannot eat my Sister, can I?"
"Of course you cannot," said the Mbambi, as he rustled away through the jungle. "We can't have everything we want in this world."
"No, I see we cannot," sighed the Crocodile, as he waddled back towards the banks of the Congo. Now in the same old spot he found the Hen, who had been improving his absence by greedily stuffing herself on beetle-bugs, flies, and mosquitoes until she was so fat that she could not run away at the Crocodile's approach. She could only stand and squawk feebly, fluttering her ridiculous wings. ”

“ Each of the nomes was conducted to the aula appointed for it.
38. Sailing along to the distance of 100 stadia, we come to the city Arsinoë, formerly called Crocodilopolis; for the inhabitants of this nome worship the crocodile. The animal is accounted sacred, and kept apart by himself in a lake; it is tame, and gentle to the priests, and is called Suchus. It is fed with bread, flesh, and wine, which strangers who come to see it always present. ”

“ Though accidents are so frequent, the crocodile can hardly be called a habitual eater of human flesh. His staple food is fish, and ‘it is only a rare incident for them to capture a mammal of any size; an incident which, given a number of crocodiles in any stream or lake, can only occur to each one at most once a year on an average.’ [1] The natives (women sometimes do take the precaution I have mentioned) are strangely reckless in venturing into the water; they provide themselves with ‘crocodile medicine’ in whose efficacy they firmly believe ”

“ We find, on reaching the ground floor, poor crocodilus laid by the heels and perfectly helpless, lashed immovably to iron rings and posts. His head is ignominiously sat upon by a sturdy man in shirt-sleeves, who presently pokes the end of a crowbar among the big teeth, and forcibly prizes the mouth open into that position of comprehensive smile so familiar to the readers of children's natural history books. Then another man kneels before the unfortunate reptile and feeds him. ”

“ Thus steadily advancing, they had just arrived at the corner within about eight yards of the crocodile, when the creature either saw them, or obtained their wind; in an inatant it rushed to the water; at the same moment, the two harpoons were launched with great rapidity by the hunters. One glanced obliquely from the scales; the other stuck fairly in the tough hide, and the iron, detached from the bamboo, held fast, while the ambatch float, running on the surface of the water, marked the course of the reptile beneath. ”

“ In Egypt the Crocodile is made the Object of religious Adoration, but not by all the Nation; for the Inhabitants of Tentyra (an Island form’d by the River Nilus) were so far from worshipping that hateful Monster, that they despised it, and often brought them to the Roman Shews for Diversion.——This Aversion to Crocodiles caused a War between the Tentyrians and the other Egyptians, who worship’d those Creatures; of which People Job seems to speak in the following Words: Let them curse it that curse the day, who are ready to raise up their Mourning, Job iii. ”

“ On the banks of the Nile the smaller birds drink in a very peculiar manner. They settle in numbers on the flexible branches that overhang the stream, and when, by their weight, the branch bends downwards, they dip their beaks in the water. The Crocodile sees afar off a branch thus loaded, swims as near as possible, and then dives until it can see the birds immediately above it, when it rises suddenly, and with a snap of its jaws secures a whole mouthful of the unsuspecting birds. ”