#osteolaemus tetraspis

[arminreindl]

Mooing crocodiles

Some interesting news on croc vocalisation I completely forgot to talk about. A recent paper on the West African Dwarf Crocodile (Osteolaemus tetraspis) revealed a before unknown diversity in noises it is able to produce. By recording captive animals and comparing the noises made by them to recordings suspected to be those of wild individuals, researchers could identify FOUR new types of calls not seen previously in crocodilians.

These calls range from low frequency sounds like "drums" (short) and "rumbles" (long) to more higher frequency sounds like "gusts" and what the scientists refer to as "moos".

Though the paper itself didn't include sound files (to my knowledge), you can hear the "mooing" sound and some others around the 16 minute mark in this here podcast Podcasts | Weekly: Antimatter falls down; Virtual healthcare comes with a price; What’s causing Europe’s insect apocalypse? | New Scientist

Croc vocalisation is a generally underappreciated field of research that usually gets little attention, no doubt because many pass of crocodiles as silent animals when really they can be quite vocal and have a surprisingly broad range, small forms like the dwarf crocodiles especially. This can even be seen in this study, as the wild sounds were only recorded on "accident" by a study focused on elephants.

Also for those unfamiliar with dwarf crocodiles, here's an image of one.

[herpsandbirds]

Trick or treat :) !

HAVE I GOT A TREAT FOR YOU!!!

African Dwarf Crocodiles (Osteolaemus tetraspis), family Crocodylidae, found in West-central Africa

This small crocodile species only grows to a length of up to 1.5 m (4.9 ft), on average.

photographs by San Diego Zoo Wildlife Alliance

[cal-daisies-and-briars]

The day you post this will probably make my year so i'm simply looking out for myself

🪞🪞🪞🪞🪞🪞🪞🪞🪞🪞🪞🪞🪞🪞🪞🪞🪞🪞🪞🪞🪞🪞🪞🪞🪞🪞🪞🪞🪞🪞🪞🪞🪞🪞🪞🪞🪞🪞🪞🪞🪞🪞🪞🪞🪞🪞🪞🪞🪞🪞🪞🪞🪞🪞🪞🪞🪞🪞🪞🪞🪞🪞🪞🪞🪞🪞🪞🪞🪞🪞🪞🪞🪞🪞🪞🪞🪞🪞🪞🪞🪞🪞🪞🪞🪞🪞🪞🪞🪞🪞🪞🪞🪞🪞🪞🪞

thank you🫶🏻🫶🏻🫶🏻

Well I hope your year has been made!

Here's 1k from the final chapter, because I'm not even trying to count that hahaha.

---

“Well, you’re not getting anywhere,” Christopher observes. 

“Chris,” Eddie shakes his head. 

“I mean, he’s got a point,” Buck sighs. He turns his eyes to the list and begins to read them. “These are…”

“Perfect?” Chris responds. 

Buck clears his throat and lists them off.

“Christina,” he reads. 

“Seriously?” Eddie asks his son. 

“After her favorite member of the family!” Chris insists. “It’s perfect!”

Buck snorts.

Eddie sighs. 

“I don’t think I’ll choose that, but thanks for the suggestion, bud,” Buck says.

“Your funeral,” Chris shrugs.

Buck keeps reading. 

“Zelda.” 

“Like the video game character?” Eddie asks.

“It’s a nice name!” Chris argues. 

“It’s not… Terrible,” Buck replies diplomatically. He reads the next one. “Taylor… Chris, you remember my ex-girlfriend Taylor, right?”

“I sure do,” Eddie grumbles.

“Yeah, but Taylor Swift is really popular right now, so you can’t go wrong,” Chris says. 

“You can,” Eddie says. “You can go wrong. Please don’t name that sweet little girl after Taylor Kelly.”

“I definitely won’t,” Buck agrees. He reads the last name on the sheet. “Tetra? What is that from?”

“Sounds like a medication,” Eddie says. 

“Like Osteolaemus tetraspis,” Chris says. “A dwarf crocodile.”

“Oh god,” Eddie sighs.

“That’s actually kind of the best one,” Buck admits.

“Right?” Chris grins.

“Veto!” Eddie announces. “I veto it!”

“What?” Chris demands. “That sucks.”

“Oh, you can veto my kid’s name, huh?” Buck smirks. “I thought you weren’t helping.”

“One future step-father veto allowed per ridiculous name list,” Eddie says. 

Buck is certain his face goes bright red. 

“Okay,” he says. “Consider it vetoed.”

Chris sighs. “You guys are boring.”

▪️▪️▪️

In the end, it’s Bobby and Athena who are most helpful. Just like they had been when he was trying to find a home for Dove to begin with. He goes over to their newly built home one afternoon to talk. Dove stays with Eddie and Chris. 

“How did you choose your kids’ names?” Buck asks. “Other than Bobby Jr., I guess. I’m not naming her Buck Jr.”

“Well, thank goodness for that,” Athena chuckles. 

“First of all, Marcy named him after me,” Bobby says. “I was at a five alarm fire for several hours. By the time I got to the hospital, he had a name.”

“Harry’s out, too, then. We named him after Michael’s father, who passed,” Athena explains. 

“O-okay,” Buck nods. “What about the girls?” 

“There was no real special significance behind Brooke,” Bobby explains. “We were looking through a book of names. And we both just liked it. To me, it sounded like a nice, peaceful summer day. Nature and streams and everything. Just… Tranquil. I wanted that for her.”

Buck smiles. He likes the sound of that.

“It was similar for May actually,” Athena says. “May was always my favorite month, growing up in Florida. Warm, with long, sunny days. But before the summer swelter. I thought, what more beautiful thing to name my daughter after than the brightest, most beautiful day?”

“Those are both great,” Buck says. “I really like that.”

“We were both thinking of what we envisioned for our daughters,” Bobby says. “But you already know yours. Maybe choose something based on who she already is?”

Dove already is the brightest, most beautiful day. 

Buck nods. “I think I can do that.”

v.

Buck brings the matter to Dove. He thinks it’s only fair. It’s her name. 

It’s late March. Their hearing is in six weeks. Plenty of time to get the paperwork together to submit the moment she’s adopted. If they can pick. 

He takes her to Griffith Park. Makes a picnic for just the two of them. They find a spot in the Mineral Wells area. It’s a surprisingly quiet day. It feels like they have a large grassy area to themselves.

Dove is wearing overalls and a strawberry-print shirt. He thinks they need to go shopping again soon. She’s already gotten taller. At least he can save her outgrown things for Jee. 

“Okay, kiddo,” he says, when they finish kicking a soccer ball back and forth and sit down to eat. “I want to talk about your name.”

“My name,” she repeats.

“Do you still want me to pick a new one for you?”

She nods. “Yes. I still want a name from you.”

“I think I have an idea of how you and I can pick together,” Buck says. 

She twists her mouth, curious but apprehensive. He knows she wants it to be his choice. But he wants it to have meaning to her, too.

“Can we try?” He asks. 

“Okay,” she nods. 

“I was thinking we could pick a name that represents all the best things about you,” he says. “Because you’re such a special, amazing little girl. I want your name to say that.”

She smiles. She’s missing one of her canine teeth right now. It’s criminally cute.

 “Okay.”

“So, how about this?” Buck says. “Why don’t you tell me some of the things that you think are the best things about you?”

She furrows her brows. “I don’t know…”

“Come on,” Buck says. “I bet you can name a few.”

“Isn’t that rude?” She asks. “At school Mrs. Weller said it’s rude to brag.”

“Mm, it’s not really bragging,” Buck says. “But, if it was… It’s okay. Because I’m your dad and I like bragging about you.”

“Okay,” she says. But Buck can tell she doesn’t quite believe it.

“Alright, how about I start?”

She shrugs. “Sure.”

“One of my favorite things about you, is that you’re curious,” he says. “You like to learn and try new things. I think that’s super cool.”

She blushes. “Thank you.”

“You’re welcome. It’s true. Your turn. What do you like about you?”

“Um…” She trails off. “I guess… I’m nice?”

“You are nice,” Buck agrees. “What else?”

“I got good at swimming really fast,” she says. 

“You did,” Buck agrees. “You’re like a little fish.”

“No!” She shakes her head. “I’m like Chomp! Chomp can swim.”

Damn Eddie and his crocodile veto.

[blubushie]

went to the Dublin zoo earlier and saw a crocodile so now i am politely requesting croc facts if you've got some

Crocodiles are closely related to birds. Crocodiles and modern birds are the only living archosaurs!

The largest crocodile species is the saltwater crocodile, Crocodylus porosus. Males can be longer than 7m and weigh more than 1,000kg. This also makes the saltwater crocodile the largest reptile on the planet!

The smallest crocodile species is the dwarf crocodile (Osteolaemus tetraspis) which can grow to a max length of 2m but usually averages out at about 1.5m and a maximum male weight of 80kg but an average of 30kg.

Saltwater crocodiles have the strongest bite force of any animal. That said their jaw muscles are really weak so you can hold their mouths shut with just your hands. If you sit on them and tip their heads up to hold their mouths shut between your chin and chest, this is called bulldogging.

Saltwater crocodile teeth can get up to 13cm long.

The oldest crocodile on record is Cassius, a saltwater crocodile at Marineland Crocodile Park in Queensland, Australia. At 5.5m he's the longest crocodile currently kept in captivity (this record was briefly broken in 2011 by Lolong, a 6.17m crocodile captured from the Phillippines and exhibited, but was reclaimed by Cassius when Lolong died in captivity in 2013) and also the oldest at an estimated 120+ years!

Sorry that's all you get I got really distracted cuz I had to cook and then I couldn't think of any more cuz I'm busy. I made a peach cobbler though! And steak and sparra's guts and a loaded potato :]

[games-gamesdesign]

Species

There are a total of 18 extant species have been recognized.

American crocodile (Crocodylus acutus)

Hall's New Guinea crocodile (Crocodylus halli)

Orinoco crocodile (Crocodylus intermedius)

Freshwater crocodile (Crocodylus johnstoni)

Philippine crocodile (Crocodylus mindorensis)

Morelet's crocodile (Crocodylus moreletii)

Nile crocodile (Crocodylus niloticus)

New Guinea crocodile (Crocodylus novaeguineae)

Mugger crocodile (Crocodylus palustris)

Saltwater crocodile (Crocodylus porosus)

Borneo crocodile (Crocodylus raninus)

Cuban crocodile (Crocodylus rhombifer)

Siamese crocodile (Crocodylus siamensis)

West African crocodile (Crocodylus suchus)

Osborn’s dwarf crocodile (Osteolaemus osborni)

Dwarf crocodile (Osteolaemus tetraspis)

West African slender-snouted crocodile (Mecistops cataphractus)

Central African slender-snouted crocodile (Mecistops leptorhynchus)

[nedsecondline]

African Dwarf Crocodile Osteolaemus tetraspis — Palm Oil Detectives | Barbara Crane Navarro

African Dwarf Crocodiles are timid nocturnal animals and solitary hunters. They predate mainly on small animals in rivers or nearby to the riverbank. They are also known as the Broad-Snouted Crocodile or the Bony Crocodile are the smallest extant species of crocodile in the world and are typically around 1.5 metres in length. They face persecution by humans and other animals and spend most of…

[crudlynaturephotos]

[orifice-torture]

(Osteolaemus tetraspis) West African dwarf crocodile 

[antiqueanimals]

Grzimek's Animal Life Encyclopedia. Volume 6: Reptiles. Written by Bernard Grzimek. 1984. Illustration by Helmut Diller.

1.) Dwarf crocodile (Osteolaemus tetraspis)

2.) False gharial (Tomistoma schlegelii)

3.) Nile crocodile (Crocodylus niloticus)

4.) American crocodile (Crocodylus acutus)

5.) Saltwater crocodile (Crocodylus porosus)

6.) Gharial (Gavialis gangeticus)

[iihbki3]

Picture of the day: Dwarf Crocodile (Osteolaemus tetraspis) in the Exotenhaus of the Karlsruhe Zoo. https://t.co/ApcGQrTv37

[cypherdecypher]

Animal of the Day!

African Dwarf Crocodile (Osteolaemus tetraspis)

(Photo from Franklin Park Zoo)

Conservation Status- Vulerable

Habitat- Western Africa

Size (Weight/Length)- 32.2 kg; 179.8 cm

Diet- Small mammals; fish; crabs; insects; amphibians

Cool Facts- The African dwarf crocodile is the smallest known species of crocodile. Despite their small size, it doesn’t make them any less dangerous than their much larger relatives. While most African dwarf crocodiles sport a dark brown color that looks black in water, certain individuals living in caves in the Gabonese Republic have an orange coloration. This results from living in water that has high levels of bat poo in the water that erodes the brown scales and leave a dull orange behind. African dwarf crocodiles are mostly nocturnal and relatively shy, only taking on prey that they know they can overpower and eat.

Rating- 12/10 (They protecc. They attacc. But most importantly, they perfecc.)

[herpsandbirds]

African Dwarf Crocodiles (Osteolaemus tetraspis), family Crocodylidae, found in West-central Africa

This small crocodile species only grows to a length of up to 1.5 m (4.9 ft), on average.

photographs by San Diego Zoo Wildlife Alliance

[archosaurophilia]

Very pleased to have (finally!) written a crocodilian article for the blog. Find out what we know about the curious dwarf crocodiles (Osteolaemus) here.

[daily-reptile]

Dwarf Crocodile

The dwarf crocodile, also known as the African dwarf crocodile, broad-snouted crocodile or bony crocodile, is an African crocodile that is also the smallest extant species of crocodile. Sampling has identified three genetically distinct populations.

Scientific name: Osteolaemus tetraspis

Conservation status: Vulnerable

Length: 4-6 feet

Weight: 40-70 pounds

[paradisezero]

Wikipedia picture of the day on October 14, 2020: Dwarf Crocodile (Osteolaemus tetraspis) in the Exotenhaus of the Karlsruhe Zoo. Learn more.

[davi2206]

Wikipedia picture of the day on October 14, 2020: Dwarf Crocodile (Osteolaemus tetraspis) in the Exotenhaus of the Karlsruhe Zoo. https://ift.tt/37235ty