Traveling Crocs

The saltwater crocodile really gets around. It’s found throughout the Indian and western Pacific oceans. That makes it one of the most cosmopolitan reptiles on the planet.

But it’s not quite as widely spread as it once was. Crocodiles that once inhabited the Seychelles islands were members of the same family. But they were exterminated by early settlers.

The saltwater croc is the largest reptile on Earth. Adult males can reach 20 feet or longer and weigh more than a ton. They’re super-aggressive—they’ll eat anything they can catch, and they can catch almost anything—including people.

When people first settled on the islands, in 1770, they found plenty of crocs. Within half a century, though, the settlers had wiped them out. That made the islanders safer. But it left modern-day science with a question: Were the crocodiles members of the saltwater family, or were they a separate species? With no living examples, the question has been hard to answer.

In a recent study, though, scientists were able to extract DNA from parts of crocodiles preserved in museums. They compared the samples to those of modern saltwater crocs. And the samples matched—the Seychelles monsters were relatives of the crocodiles found across the region.

The Seychelles are a long way from any major land mass—about 900 miles from Africa, and 1700 miles from India. So the crocs had to travel a long way to reach them—expanding the range of this cosmopolitan reptile.

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