NATURAL HISTORY · CATALOGUE RECORD
American crocodile
Crocodylus acutus Cuvier, 1807
Source-backed taxonomic record
Accepted species in Catalogue of Life’s 11 September 2026 base release. This preserves the source classification and available supporting data; it is not a completed species monograph.
Open encyclopedia reference
The American crocodile (Crocodylus acutus) is a species of crocodilian found in the Neotropics. It is the most widespread of the four extant species of crocodiles from the Americas, with populations present from South Florida, the Caribbean islands of Cuba, Jamaica, and Hispaniola, and the coasts of Mexico to as far south as Peru, Ecuador, Colombia, and Venezuela. The habitat of the American crocodile consists largely of coastal areas. It is also found in river systems, but tends to prefer salinity, resulting in the species congregating in brackish lakes, mangrove swamps, lagoons, cays, and small islands. Other crocodiles also have tolerance to saltwater due to salt glands underneath the tongue, but the American crocodile is the only species other than the saltwater crocodile to commonly live and thrive in saltwater. They can be found on beaches and small island formations without any freshwater source, such as many cays and islets across the Caribbean. They are also found in hypersaline lakes; one of the largest known populations inhabits Lago Enriquillo in the Dominican Republic.
Wikipedia contributors, American crocodile; see linked history · CC BY-SA 4.0 . Plain-text lead excerpt, at most 180 words; no infobox or later sections Retrieved 2026-10-05T07:16:13.092212+00:00. This reference remains separate from the taxonomic record.
Identity & source status
- Scientific name
- Crocodylus acutus Cuvier, 1807
- Name authority
- Cuvier, 1807
- Common name
- American crocodile
- Rank
- species
- Accepted status
- accepted
- Kingdom
- Animalia
- Phylum
- Chordata
- Class
- Reptilia
- Order
- Crocodylia
- Family
- Crocodylidae
- Genus
- Crocodylus
- Extinction status
- Not supplied by this source
Classification family tree
Nested taxonomic groups from the source. This is not a direct-ancestor chain, a dated evolutionary tree or a phylogenetic reconstruction.
- domainEukaryota (Chatton, 1925) Whittaker & Margulis, 1978
- kingdomAnimalia
- phylumChordata
- subphylumVertebrata
- infraphylumGnathostomata
- parvphylumOsteichthyes
- megaclassTetrapoda
- classReptilia Laurenti, 1768
- orderCrocodylia
- familyCrocodylidae
- genusCrocodylus
- speciesCrocodylus acutus Cuvier, 1807
Close classified relatives
These entries share the source’s genus, Crocodylus. They are not necessarily the closest relatives established by molecular evidence.
| Species | Classification | Source status |
|---|---|---|
| Hall’s New Guinea CrocodileCrocodylus halli Murray, Russo, Zorrilla & Mcmahan, 2019 | CrocodylidaeChordata | Accepted speciesExtinction status not supplied |
| Freshwater CrocodileCrocodylus johnstoni Krefft, 1873 | CrocodylidaeChordata | Accepted speciesExtinction status not supplied |
| Orinoco crocodileCrocodylus intermedius Graves, 1819 | CrocodylidaeChordata | Accepted speciesExtinction status not supplied |
| Philippine crocodileCrocodylus mindorensis Schmidt, 1935 | CrocodylidaeChordata | Accepted speciesExtinction status not supplied |
| New Guinea crocodileCrocodylus novaeguineae Schmidt, 1928 | CrocodylidaeChordata | Accepted speciesExtinction status not supplied |
| Marsh crocodileCrocodylus palustris Lesson, 1831 | CrocodylidaeChordata | Accepted speciesExtinction status not supplied |
| Siamese crocodileCrocodylus siamensis Schneider, 1801 | CrocodylidaeChordata | Accepted speciesExtinction status not supplied |
| West African crocodileCrocodylus suchus Geoffroy Saint-Hilaire, 1807 | CrocodylidaeChordata | Accepted speciesExtinction status not supplied |
Names & synonyms
Names explicitly linked to this accepted taxon in the source. Synonymy can change with revision.
| Recorded name | Source status |
|---|---|
| Crocodilus americanus Laurenti, 1768 Laurenti, 1768 | synonym |
| Crocodilus floridanus Hornaday, 1875 Hornaday, 1875 | synonym |
Documented distribution
Source distribution statements, not a complete range map. A listed locality is not necessarily a place of origin.
Source literature & publication evidence
References attached to this source record, including nomenclatural citations where supplied. This is a selected bibliography; abbreviated citations remain in the source’s form.
- https://reptile-database.reptarium.cz/species?genus=Crocodylus&species=acutus Source fields: Taxon.tsv dwc:namePublishedIn, Taxon.tsv dcterms:references
Origins, evidence & remaining research
Name authority and publication references document nomenclature where the source supplies it. They do not establish evolutionary origins or the earliest fossil occurrence.
Specimen-level evidence, morphology, ecological research, phylogenetic studies, a comprehensive bibliography and a located literary passage have not yet been compiled for this record. A suitable sourced image remains to be added.
Dataset citation & attribution
This exact taxon in ChecklistBank · Catalogue of Life 2026-09-11
Catalogue of Life 2026-09-11; dataset 316321; doi:10.48580/dgz5n. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ . Retrieved 5 October 2026.
Stable key: col:ZKNB. Classification follows source parent identifiers. English common names may vary by region.