scientist recently found out how salt water crocidiles travel between islands. they travel along ocean currents. this also explains how they have remained one species. the population weren't completely isolated as originally thought.
scientists discover how crocidiles travel between islands
- Thread starter pjdude1219
- Start date
Wow! 
Link?
Link?
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/37553148
I don't know that it's that surprising. There's a J Anim Ecol article on it, but lots of animals are supposed to have ridden logs and so forth to get between islands (see MacArthur book, etc.). It's somewhat new in that it's a larger animal...then again, sea turtles wander around a lot, and probably on the currents.
I don't know that it's that surprising. There's a J Anim Ecol article on it, but lots of animals are supposed to have ridden logs and so forth to get between islands (see MacArthur book, etc.). It's somewhat new in that it's a larger animal...then again, sea turtles wander around a lot, and probably on the currents.
salties aren't the world's greatest swimmers. they have had tagged crocs going like 355 miles in 25 days which is a pretty good clip.
I would have thought they walk across the bottom or something.
They've been spotted out at sea lots of times. In island ecological theory, you only really have to stay afloat.
Stop that.
Yeah, swimming and drifting. Komodo dragons do it too. It's expected since they're large, mobile animals. A gravid croc could, thereby, rapidly colonize a new region even at long distances. I'd be interested to see if they could manage a "virgin birth" scenario as Komodos are meant to do.
Frankly it was more surprising when it was found that zooplankton were controlling their diurnal water column migrations; they were assumed too small to be able to control their wanderings. But evidently they do exert some kind of influence on their position.
Frankly it was more surprising when it was found that zooplankton were controlling their diurnal water column migrations; they were assumed too small to be able to control their wanderings. But evidently they do exert some kind of influence on their position.
I have to admit. I read the title and thought ummm,... THEY SWIM!
They're not called saltwater crocs for nothing.
Incidentally, they're just about bomb proof. In the North of Australia, at the end of the dry season they just hunker down in the mud or clay until it rains.
It might take a month or two, no problem, they wait then resurrect themselves, eat some geese and live to about a hundred. The've been around for a squillion years. Bomb proof.
They're not called saltwater crocs for nothing.
Incidentally, they're just about bomb proof. In the North of Australia, at the end of the dry season they just hunker down in the mud or clay until it rains.
It might take a month or two, no problem, they wait then resurrect themselves, eat some geese and live to about a hundred. The've been around for a squillion years. Bomb proof.
Fraggle Rocker
Staff member
Crocodiles are reptiles, not amphibians. They have lungs and breathe air. Crocodiles, turtles and lizards/snakes are the three orders of reptiles.
Also Rhynchocephalians.
