Tuesday, August 09, 2005

Crocodile


Salt water Crocodile
Originally uploaded by Pandiyan.

Do you know that crocodiles have a super immune system that very rarely they catch a disease?

Though crocs breathe like land animals and not like fish, they can remain under water for hours. They bring down their metabolic rate so much that their oxygen requirement is minimal. The picture shows the tongue which folds back to cover the throat.

Crocs use their teeth more to hold their prey as they swallow food whole. Their jaws are very powerful exerting incredible amount of power as they close. However, curiously, the muscles controlling the jaws to open are so weak that held tight by a human they can't open the jaws.

8 comments:

km said...

Great pictures.

Co-incidentally, a study came out just a few days ago about research on antibiotics in crocodile blood being used as in AIDS treatments.

Krishna

pandiyan said...

Yes, KM. Crocs may hold a key for some wonderful new medical discoveries. They have such a super resistence. This is an area of research which is picking up.

A Motley Tunic said...

hi pandiyan,
very interesting and informative blogs. i also recently learnt that crocodiles have a bite force of 2500lbs which is huge when compared to that of lions (~690lbs) and humans (~127lbs). pitiful humans!! :-)

pandiyan said...

Pitiful humans? Human have a bite force that chew the whole world as environmentalists are pointing out!

Peelamedu_bulls said...

Pandiyan,
First time visit to your blog. Good information packed site.
Are you a wildlife photographer?

pandiyan said...

I am just a wildlife enthusiast.

Anonymous said...

Are these pictures you actually snapped?

pandiyan said...

Yes, jammy. However, over the last few days I have wondering whether I should start posting the pictures of others on the subject (with their permission of course) to make the blog more extensive.