Crocodile snouts more sensitive than human fingertips

Adam Khor

Not paleontology but interesting for many reasons:

http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/notrocketscience/2012/11/08/crocodile-faces-are-more-sensitive-than-human-fingertips/

Some dinosaurs such as Spinosaurus seemingly had these sensors as well.
It is interesting that alligators only have them in their faces whereas crocodiles have them all over their bodies. I'm thinking these bumps may have other functions and perhaps it is related to the fact that crocodiles can survive in saltwater whereas gators seemingly cannot. I wonder if they checked caimans as well.

Oh, and, this looks just like the head of one of those dinosaurs of old monster movies:

Rubecula

That is excellent stuff. Strange that alligators don't have the coverage that crocs do. Obviously they don't need it to be that way. But why? Could it just be alligators are more developed evolutionary wise? No I don't think so myself.

I am more inclined to think that the head first approach is used by both but for an alligator it is the only approach. Crocodiles seem to be able to find food in any direction, and this could be a survival strategy. AND it could also be a defence strategy too. Crocs have often been depicted as attacking each other, it would be useful to know a bigger badder beastie is coming at you while you are not looking.

Adam Khor

Rubecula wrote: »

That is excellent stuff. Strange that alligators don't have the coverage that crocs do. Obviously they don't need it to be that way. But why? Could it just be alligators are more developed evolutionary wise? No I don't think so myself.

I am more inclined to think that the head first approach is used by both but for an alligator it is the only approach. Crocodiles seem to be able to find food in any direction, and this could be a survival strategy. AND it could also be a defence strategy too. Crocs have often been depicted as attacking each other, it would be useful to know a bigger badder beastie is coming at you while you are not looking.

Interesting thought, because crocodiles are known to be faster and more aggressive than gators... (not that gators can´t be nasty but gator keepers take liberties with their charges that they would never take with adult crocodiles- I know this for personal experience).

Like I said, it would be interesting to know if caimans were included in the study, as they are more closely related to alligators but are usually faster and more aggressive if I'm not mistaken.