Alligator sinensis

The Chinese alligator, also known as the Yangtze alligator, China alligator, or historically the muddy dragon, is a crocodilian endemic to China. It and the American alligator are the only living species in the genus Alligator of the family Alligatoridae. Dark gray or black in color with a fully armored body, the Chinese alligator grows to 1.5–2.1 metres (5–7 ft) in length and weighs 36–45 kilograms (80–100 lb) as an adult. It brumates in burrows in winter and is nocturnal in summer. Mating occurs in early summer, with females most commonly producing 20–30 eggs, which are smaller than those of any other crocodilian. The species is an opportunistic feeder, primarily eating fish and invertebrates. A vocal species, adults bellow during the mating season and young vocalize to communicate with their parents and other juveniles. Captive specimens have reached age 70, and wild specimens can live past 50.

Alligator sinensis

Greg Hume · CC BY-SA 3.0 · via Wikipedia/Commons. May be a photograph of a specimen, or an artist’s reconstruction — an interpretation of a skeleton, since colour and soft tissue are almost never preserved.

On record

Recorded, not inferred
Also called
Chinese alligatorPBDB
Sits inside
AlligatorPBDB
Diet
carnivorePBDB, for Crocodylia
Motility
actively mobilePBDB, for Osteichthyes
Environment
marinePBDB, for Mesoeucrocodylia

Time the record covers

At least 2.5 million years on record.

The record covers at least 2.58 Mya to 11.7 ka. No occurrence read is dated outside 3.6 Mya to 0 Mya.

Pliocene — about 2 of 28 occurrencesPliocenePleistocene — about 4 of 28 occurrencesPleistoceneHolocene — about 22 of 28 occurrences3.7–3.6 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences3.6–3.4 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences3.4–3.3 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences3.3–3.1 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences3.1–3.0 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences3.0–2.9 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences2.9–2.7 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences2.7–2.6 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences2.6–2.5 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences820 ka–683 ka Mya — about 0.4 occurrences683 ka–547 ka Mya — about 0.6 occurrences547 ka–410 ka Mya — about 0.6 occurrences410 ka–273 ka Mya — about 0.6 occurrences273 ka–137 ka Mya — about 0.6 occurrences137 ka–0 Mya — about 23 occurrences2.58 Mya11.7 ka4.1 Mya0 Mya

28 occurrences of Alligator sinensis on record. The Paleobiology Database records this as a living group. Bar height is expected occurrences, not a count: each fossil is spread across the span it is dated to, so a tall narrow bar means tight dating and a low wide one means loose.

When

28 occurrences

These are dates about fossils, not the animal: the record can only begin after it arose and end before it died out, so either end may reach further. Shares are expected occurrences: a fossil dated to a span is counted partly in each period it straddles. More on what this infers.

Found in

1 formation

Tsubusagawa — 33.38°N, 131.28°E

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The named rock units Alligator sinensis has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. 26 occurrences have no formation on record, which is common for older literature.

Found in the same rock

90 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 27 sites for Alligator sinensis, and this reads all of them. The number is how many of those sites it was catalogued from too. The 24 sharing the most are listed.

This is not a list of everything alive at the time. It is only what has come out of the same ground as this animal and been written down.

Entered from

7 references

Each of the 28 occurrences read was entered from one of these publications, ordered by how many each accounts for. This is not a search for papers mentioning the name. Entries link to doi.org where the Paleobiology Database holds an identifier, and to its own record where it does not. Relayed as the Paleobiology Database holds them, not checked against what they resolve to.

Media and terms

Media content2

Picture of Alligator sinensis

Credit
Greg Hume
Licence
CC BY-SA 3.0
Commercial use
the licence allows it

3D model

Source
Sketchfab
Licence
CC Attribution-NonCommercial
Commercial use
the licence does not allow it

Smithsonian Open Access and MorphoSource were not reached for this taxon, so this list is what the others held rather than everything there is.

The description on this site

Licence
CC BY-SA 4.0

This is what the site found, which is not the same as what exists.

Keep going

What may have been alongside itAlligator through timeThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. Fauvel 1879