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Name : Cave - dwelling nanus crocodiles ( Osteolaemus tetraspis )
Where it endure : Abanda spelunk system , Ogooue - Maritime Province , Gabon
Image showing an orange cave crocodile on the left, and a forest-dwelling crocodile on the right. The researchers caught individuals from each population and compared them to see if there were physical differences resulting from their habitats.
What it eats : undermine cricket and bats
Why it ’s awing : Deep inside one of Gabon ’s cave system of rules survive an unusual population of orange dwarf crocodile . They live in complete darkness , spread on cricket bat and float in liquid guano ( aka bat poop . )
It ’s obscure how many crocodiles are live in these caves , or when they assume this subterraneous lifestyle , but they may have been down there for thousands of years — and scientists say they may even be in the process of evolving into a new specie .
The cave - dwell crocodiles were only analyze for the first clock time in 2010 , and a2016 studythat compared them to their forest - abode counterparts prove a number of difference between the two . Their diets are very unlike , with the cave crocs feeding almost only on the bounty of crickets and bat that cling to the cave wall . They retrieve the cave crocodiles were generally in better condition than those living in the woodland , which the team say is potential due to the abundance of prey uncommitted and a lack of predators .
They intimate the cave crocodile dwell their eggs at the lip of the cave , then the juvenile venture into the darkness . Once they accomplish adulthood , it ’s imagine they scarce leave the cave again .
Orange skin and genetic changes
The strange orangish cutis see on adult crocodiles may be the result of their sentence swim in bat guano , which is rich in urea , wind authorMatthew Shirley , a preservation biologist from Florida International University , say National Geographic in 2018 . Over sentence , this picture appears to do chemical substance bleaching of the crocodiles ' skin , the written report authors wrote .
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Intriguingly , genetic depth psychology of the crocodiles — which has not been published — suggests the orange cave crocodiles may be mutating , according to a Guardian article in 2018 . Researchers state the newspaper that one haplotype ( a grouping of DNA variants inherited from a parent ) found in the cave crocs was n’t present in the wood crocodile . " The [ crocodile in the ] caves of Abanda stand out as an isolated genetic group , " study co - author Richard Oslisly , a investigator at France ’s Institute of Research for Development , tell the Guardian .
This genetical variety is evidence that the cave crocodile are evolving into a newfangled species . " As a effect of that isolation and the fact that few individuals descend in or go out , they ’re in the procedure of [ becoming ] a novel mintage , " Shirley told National Geographic . " Whether that happens shortly or not is anyone ’s surmisal . "
Crocodile quiz
