Re: [TREE-CLIMBING BABY CROCS]

[archosaur@usa.net]

owner-dinosaur@usc.edu wrote:
> OK OK, so the thread died a death weeks ago. I know. There is just 

> one more thing I wanted to say that I never had time to say 

> beforehand.

> 

> This is that, whether crocs climb trees or not (and, anecdotes 

> aside, it appears they do not), people should not point toward 

> monitor lizards as possible croc analogues. Unlike crocs, including 

> baby ones, many monitors are well equipped to climb trees, what with 

> their set of 20 sharply curved claws, elongate digits including a 

> strongly divergent pedal digit 5, and very flexible tails. As such a 

> bauplan is primitive for monitors, it has been easy for them to 

> evolve arboreality on several occasions. Many varanid species are 

> therefore fully arboreal (_V. rudicollis_, _V. prasinus_, _V. 

> teriae_, _V. bogerti_, _V. telenesetes_ etc etc etc) or close to it, 

> while the juveniles of many terrestrial species (such as _V. 

> komodoensis_) exhibit strong arboreal tendencies. Extant crocs do not 

> exhibit the features utilised by monitors in their arboreal exploits, 

> so the two groups are not comparable. I hope that sorts it out.

> "Darwin's bulldog was kicked as a puppy"

> DARREN NAISH

> darren.naish@port.ac.uk
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Well, I'm sad to say that I missed this thread, sounds like it got very
interesting. 

I don't know why anyone would use monitor lizards as arboreal croc analogues,
but there are baby crocs of certain species (caimans mostly) that are known to
climb trees (albight not too far), but that might have been mentioned already.

Well I'm off to the archives to see what I missed.

Archosaur J

Jurassosaurus's Reptipage: A page devoted to the study of the reptilia

http://members.tripod.com/~jurassosauridae/index.html

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