Historical, exceptionally large skulls of saltwater crocodiles discovered at the Lee Kong Chian Natural History Museum in Singapore (original) (raw)
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TAP CHI SINH HOC
We report on a large crocodile skull recovered from a river bank in August 2010 near Đầu Sấu Bridge, in An Binh, Ninh Kieu District, Cần Thơ Province, in southern Vietnam. As the skull from Cần Thơ, named “Đầu Sấu“ herein, is now deposited in the Vietnam National Museum of Nature, Hanoi, we reinvestigated the circumstances surrounding its discovery and provide exact measurements. Skull length (dorsal mid-point) is 70.7 cm. The morphological features confirm it is from a Saltwater crocodile (Crocodylus porosus), and not a Siamese crocodile (C. siamensis), which historically also occurred throughout the Mekong Delta of Vietnam. Skull measurements are compared with those of other large C. porosus skulls for which reliable estimates of total length are available. We also provide measurements of the prepared skull of “Lolong” (69.8 cm), a 6.17 m long C. porosus captured in the Philippines in 2011. On the basis of known skull length:total length ratios the crocodile from Cần Thơ is estima...
Academia Journal of Biololy, 2019
We report on a large crocodile skull recovered from a river bank in August 2010 near Dau Sau Bridge, in An Binh, Ninh Kieu District, Can Tho Province, in southern Vietnam. As the skull from Can Tho, named "Dau Sau" herein, is now deposited in the Vietnam National Museum of Nature, Ha Noi, we reinvestigated the circumstances surrounding its discovery and provide exact measurements. Skull length (dorsal mid-point) is 70.7 cm. The morphological features confirm it is from a Saltwater crocodile (Crocodylus porosus), and not a Siamese crocodile (C. siamensis), which historically also occurred throughout the Mekong Delta of Vietnam. Skull measurements are compared with those of other large C. porosus skulls for which reliable estimates of total length are available. We also provide measurements of the prepared skull of "Lolong" (69.8 cm), a 6.17 m long C. porosus captured in the Philippines in 2011. On the basis of known skull length:total length ratios the crocodile from Can Tho is estimated to be 6.3-6.8 m long. The skull of Dau Sau is likely to have been buried for at least 100 years. We discuss the origin of the local name Dau Sau, which has traditional and cultural significance, and provide historical reports of crocodiles in the area. Dau Sau is smaller than the largest known C. porosus skull (76 cm), but is the largest ever reported from Vietnam, and one of the largest C. porosus known.
A morphometric analysis of crocodilian skull shapes
This paper presents insights into the variety and variability in skull shapes of crocodiles using both traditional and nontraditional measurements within a landmark analysis. Using 159 adult crania of all 23 crocodilian species from the collections of five European museums, we found that the relationship between total skull width and length does not account for the majority of the variation between crocodilian species. We identified measurements between the orbit and premaxillary notch, explaining 90% of the variance, the distance from the orbit to the 5 th maxillary tooth, and Kälin's number 12 (1933) as main focal areas for species differentiation. These measurements usefully define the shape of the crocodilian skull, differentiate between species with good precision, and allow reasonable inferences about function.
A giant crocodile in the Dubois Collection from the Pleistocene of Kali Gedeh (Java)
Integrative Zoology, 2014
The fauna of the Pleistocene Homo-bearing sites of Java has been well known for more than a century. A recent revision of the crocodylian remains confirmed both the validity of Gavialis bengawanicus Dubois 1908 and the synonymization of Crocodylus ossifragus Dubois 1908 with Crocodylus siamensis Schneider 1801. Here we report on a still unpublished crocodylian specimen collected by Dubois in the latest early Pleistocene of Kali Gedeh that can be tentatively referred to the genus Crocodylus. The size of the specimen, the approximately 1 m long lower jaw in particular, indicated that this crocodile attained a total length of about 6 or 7 meters. Along with specimens from the Plio-Pleistocene of Africa, this material provides evidence for gigantism in Crocodylus. It is not clear if the "temperature-size rule" applies to fossil crocodylians or not, but due to the growing interest in predicting future temperature-related size changes of the extant organisms, it would be interesting to study in detail the past reaction to temperature changes of crocodylians and other terrestrial ectothermic animals.
PLoS ONE 18(1): e0279137, 2023
A description is provided of the crocodile remains that were found during an excavation carried out in 2019 at Qubbat al-Hawā (Aswan, Egypt). The material consists of five more or less complete bodies and five heads that were in varying states of preservation and completeness. The absence of resin, which was apparently not used during the preparation of the mummies, and the almost complete loss of linen bandages, due to insect damage, allowed a detailed morphological and osteometric description of the remains. Attention was focused on the general state of preservation of the crocodiles, the completeness of their skeletons and skulls, the presence of cut or other marks that could indicate the cause of death, and the processing of the carcasses. Moreover, the possible provenance of the crocodiles, the methods of capture and killing of the animals and their possible chronological attribution are discussed. It is concluded that the manner in which these specimens were prepared, as well as the variation observed in the type of 'final product', are unlike any other crocodile material described so far. The preparation method suggests a pre-Ptolemaic date for the deposit. The morphological and metrical features indicate that both Crocodylus niloticus and the recently resurrected species Crocodylus suchus are present among these individuals that range from 1.8 to 3.5 m in length.
Notes on the Saltwater Crocodile, Crocodylus porosus , in the Republic of Palau
Bulletin of The Peabody Museum of Natural History, 2009
The purpose of this study is to determine the identity of endemic Palauan crocodiles, and provide baseline data on the extent, size, structure and biology of the population of the saltwater crocodile (Crocodylus porosus) in the Republic of Palau. These studies provide a basis on which a conservation and nuisance crocodile program can be formulated, for the safety of the Palauan people; elsewhere within the species' range, by virtue of their large adult size and ferocity, saltwater crocodiles can be a threat to humans, although this does not currently seem to be the case on Palau. Perhaps this is due to the health of the marine environment and the abundance of aquatic foods available to crocodiles. The loss of the crocodile could have implications for the marine and aquatic ecology and biodiversity of this small island nation, and to the culture of the Palauan people. Determining whether the present Palauan population of crocodiles is comprised of one or more species and whether the wild population had been biologically compromised by the introduction of nonnative C. porosus or other species of crocodilians with which it may have hybridized is important for conservation work.