crocodile

A crocodile or true crocodile is a large, semiaquatic reptile that lives throughout the tropics in Africa, Asia, the Americas and Australia. The term "crocodile" is sometimes used more loosely to include all extant members of the order Crocodilia, which includes the alligators and caimans, the gharial and false gharial as well as other extinct taxa. This article uses "crocodile" or "true crocodile" to refer only to the species taxonomically included in the Crocodylidae family, extant or extinct.