Species Hierarchy
Kingdom ANIMAL (ANIMALIA)
Phylum BACKBONED ANIMALS (CHORDATA)
Class REPTILES (REPTILIA)
Order CROCODILES AND ALLIGATORS (LORICATA OR CROCODILIA)
Family CROCODILES (CROCODYLIDAE)
Common name: CROCODILE - AMERICAN
Scentific name: CROCODYLUS ACUTUS

HEAD VIEW - CLOSE VIEW
Location: REPTILE ZOO, MONROE, WA., USA, 2006

Species Info:

This lifeform is found in Florida, USA. This lifeform is found north of the Equator in the New World tropics. This lifeform is endangered and could quickly become extinct.

American Crocodile (Crocodylus acutus) is found from southern  Florida to Colombia and Ecuador. It is very rare in Florida and  probably found only in the Everglades National Park. A few examples might still be found in the Florida Keys and southern Biscayne Bay. A large specimen may be twelve feet long, but the record is over twenty-two feet.

Crocodiles (Crocodylidae) are a group that is found throughout the world.

Alligator and Crocodile group (Order Loricata) is comprised of a small number of species of very large reptiles. They have very large mouths with razor-like teeth. Another characteristic is their very large tail that is used in swimming and as a tool to catch their prey. They all can raise themselves up on their legs and run very quickly. This group evolved in the time of the dinosaurs, but has some modern developments like a four chambered heart. (Some taxonomists place all of the living members of this order into a single family, and then divide that family into three subfamilies. Here all of the living species have been placed into three families.)

Reptiles (Class Reptilia) are an ancient group of scaled  chordates. These scales may be permanently joined, as in the  turtles, or flexible, as in the snakes. Reptiles are land-based. Their eggs are laid on land and the young are air breathing.

Backboned Animals (Phylum Chordata) are the most advanced group of animals on earth. These animals are characterized by having a spinal cord or backbone. Most members have a clearly defined brain that controls the organism through a spinal cord. Fish, amphibians, reptiles, birds, and mammals are in this phylum.

Currently, some taxonomists believe that the fish should be divided into two groups (sharks and regular fishes) and that there are some other primitive groups in the phylum such as hagfish or lampreys.

Animal Kingdom contains numerous organisms that feed on other animals or plants. Included in the animal kingdom are the lower marine invertebrates such as sponges and corals, the jointed legged animals such as insects and spiders, and the backboned animals such as fish, amphibians, reptiles, birds, and mammals.

 

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