Despite reckon standardised and thriving in like habitat , crocodilesandalligatorsonly coexist in one shoes on Earth : Everglades National Park in South Florida .
Crocodiles and alligators have been around for a long meter . There are n’t many species alive today that survived the extinguishing event that wipe out the dinosaurs . Scientists have traced Crocodylomorpha ( the group ofarchosaursthat includes crocodiles , alligators , and their extinct relatives ) back to around 145 million years ago , in what is now Europe .
Some fourth dimension after that in North America , the group split apart further , with crocodiles being capable to tolerate saltwater , while alligatorids ( a mathematical group let in alligators andcaimans ) can not .
" It seems most potential that the ancestors of today ’s alligator and crocodile evolved in North America , and then subsequent to that alligatorids detain more or less within the Americas while crocodiles get everywhere else , " Paul Barrett , a palaeontologist at the Natural History Museum in London , explained in astatement .
" It see like the ability to baffle seawater bodies has allowed crocodile to become much more wide dispersed than alligator : crocodiles are found all over the human race , include in tropic oceans , whereas alligators are confine to freshwater and unable to get hold of some areas . "
There are two coinage of crocodilians that live in the United States , the American gator ( Alligator mississippiensis ) and the American crocodile ( Crocodylus acutus ) , both adhering to the " just shove the word ' American ' in front of it " naming arrangement . American alligator are found throughout the southeastern United States , while American crocodiles inhabitcoastal areasof south Florida .
At the northmost decimal point of the crocodile ' image and the southernmost point of the alligators ' range , however , there is crossover in Everglades National Park , where both animals co - exist . The two metal money live in the park , withLake Okeechobeeproviding the fresh water that the alligators need .
Both species do not love the company of other crocodilian reptile , but have inhabit this same region for some prison term now . American alligators in the region would have seem the same around8 million years ago , partake in the space with the now extinct giant star crocodileGavialosuchus americanus .
