Slender-snouted crocodile

Armored crocodile ( Mecistops cataphractus )

The armored crocodile ( Mecistops cataphractus ( Syn: Crocodylus cataphractus ) ) is an African type of genuine crocodile ( Crocodylidae ).

Features

The armored crocodile is defined by its narrow snout and can be distinguished in this way very quickly from the Nile crocodile ( Crocodylus niloticus ), with which it shares parts of the habitat. Characteristic of this type also are the enlarged neck shields, which are divided into three to four rows of two shields and communicate with the back plates. In addition to a body drawing, this crocodile also a drawing of the jaw, which is more reminiscent of the caimans and the Sunda Gavial ( Tomistoma schlegelii ).

Dissemination

The armored crocodile lives in fresh water West Africa, however, to have been seen on the coasts of Cameroon and on the island of Bioko in salt water. Little is known about the exact distribution, since it is found mostly hidden in the tropical forests. In most of its range in West and Central Africa, there lives sympatric with the Nile crocodile. It is known from Senegal to Angola on the Südmauretanien, Zaire, Zambia and Western Tanzania.

Way of life

Almost all data on the propagation of the armored crocodiles come from a single study from 1985 in the Ivory Coast. It was found that the incubation period lasts for the entire rainy season from March to July and so partly already hatching juveniles, while elsewhere until the eggs are laid. Eggs are laid in mounds of plant material on the banks of small forest rivers that are regularly flooded. Per nest comprising such a nest of 13 to 27 eggs. The young hatch during such flooding and reach in this way directly into the water. In captivity, it was observed that a mother defending her nest. More about the brood is not known in this species.

Because of their narrow snout, it is assumed that the tank crocodiles eat mainly fish. They also feed on crustaceans, snakes, frogs and insects. Further details are not known.

System

The armored crocodile was first described in 1825 by French zoologist and paleontologist Frédéric Cuvier and 1844 assigned by the British zoologist John Edward Gray of the monotypic genus Mecistops. DNA comparisons and detailed investigations of skull morphology, however, show that it is at least two, not externally or hardly distinguishable species ( crypto- species) is represented by the resulting Cameroon line, a volcanic mountain chain in million pre- 7.5 to 6.5 years Central Africa were isolated from each other ( allopatric speciation ). One species lives west of the Cameroon line in Upper Guinea, the other south-east of it in Lower Guinea and the Congo Basin.