Nile crocodile
The crocodile has seeped into modern consciousness, and appears regularly in
horror stories and
films. For instance, the
villain in the
B-movie Crocodile (2000) is a 9 m (30 ft), 100 year-old Nile crocodile called "Flat Dog", who eats teenagers.
* In
Terry Pratchett's
Discworld series, one of the
Discworld's many gods is
Offler the crocodile god. He is mainly worshipped in
Klatch and other hot countries near large rivers.
* In Matthew Reillys Seven Deadly Wonders book, in the opening chapter, The Nine come into contact with several of these crocodiles in a tomb.
The Nile crocodile is called
Mamba in
Swahili,
Garwe in
Shona,
Ngwenya in
Ndebele, and
Olom in a
Nubian dialect.
The
binomial name Crocodylus niloticus is derived from the
Greek kroko ("pebble"),
deilos ("worm", or "man"), referring to its rough skin; and
niloticus, meaning "from the Nile River".
Crocodiles are
archosaurs; early forms split off from the rest of the reptiles about 230
million years ago, during the
Triassic. Their closest living relatives are the only other surviving lineage of archosaurs: the birds. Like birds, they have
gizzards and a four-chambered heart. Unlike birds, who are descended from
dinosaurs, the basic crocodile
body shape has changed very little over time.
Crocodylus niloticus covers a wide range, and there are significant differences between the various populations. However, there are no official
subspecies though at least seven have been proposed:
*
C. n. africanus: East African Nile crocodile
*
C. n. chamses: West African Nile crocodile
*
C. n. corviei: South African Nile crocodile
*
C. n. madagascariensis: Malagasy Nile crocodile, Malagasy alligator, or Croco Mada
*
C. n. niloticus: Ethiopian Nile crocodile
*
C. n. pauciscutatus: Kenyan Nile crocodile, Kenyan alligator, or Kenyan caiman
*
C. n. suchus: Central African Nile crocodile
The first major modern treatise on a crocodylian was
Hugh B. Cott's paper "Scientific results of an inquiry into the ecology and economic status of the Nile crocodile (Crocodilus niloticus) in
Uganda" (
Transactions of the Zoological Society of London 29: 211-358).
For an informative and amusing account of pioneering discoveries in parenting behaviour, and the early days of conserving the Nile crocodile, see
Tony Pooley's book
Discoveries of a Crocodile Man (Collins, 1982).
*
Crocodile attacks* Database entry includes a brief justification of why this species is of least concern
* Britton, Adam. (n.d.).
Crocodylus niloticus (Laurenti, 1768).
Retrieved December 16, 2004 from Crocodilian Species List.
* El-Noshokaty, Amira. (January 17–23, 2002). Lord of the Nile.
Al-Ahram Weekly On-line, 569.
Retrieved December 16, 2004.
* Harris, Catherine C. (n.d.). The crocodile god, Sobek.
Retrieved December 16, 2004 from Tour Egypt.
* Nile Crocodile. (n.d.).
Retrieved December 16, 2004 from SeaWorld/Busch Gardens, Animal Bytes.
* Nile crocodiles: Temperature dependent sex determination. (February 2000).
Pulse of the Planet, 2075.
Retrieved December 16, 2004 from Pulse of the Planet.
* Ross, James Perran (ed.). (n.d.). Species Accounts:
Crocodylus niloticus.
December 16, 2004 from Status Survey and Conservation Action Plan, Second Edition: Crocodiles.
* Seawright, Caroline. (n.d.). Sobek, God of Crocodiles, Power, Protection and Fertility.
Retrieved December 16, 2004 from Tour Egypt.
* Somma, Louis A. (June 19, 2002).
Crocodylus niloticus Laurenti, 1768. USGS Nonindigenous Aquatic Species Database.
Retrieved July 14, 2006 from the USGS.
*
Multimedia information from National Geographic Kids site*
Nile crocodiles in captivity
