A caiman (also cayman as a variant spelling)Dictionary.com, retrieved February 16, 2021 is an alligatorid belonging to the subfamily Caimaninae, one of two primary lineages within Alligatoridae, the other being alligators.
Caimans inhabit Mexico, Central and South America from marshes and swamps to mangrove rivers and lakes.
Caimans have scaly skin and live a fairly nocturnal existence.
They are relatively small-sized crocodilians with an average maximum weight of  depending on species, with the exception of the black caiman (Melanosuchus niger), which can grow more than  in length and weigh up to .
The black caiman is the largest caiman species in the world and is found in the slow-moving rivers and lakes that surround the Amazon basin.
The smallest species is the Cuvier's dwarf caiman (Paleosuchus palpebrosus), which grows to  long.
There are six different species of caiman found throughout the watery jungle habitats of Central and Southern America.
The average length for most of the other caiman species is about  long.
Caimans are distinguished from alligators, their closest relatives, by a few defining features: a lack of a bony septum between the nostrils, ventral armor composed of overlapping bony scutes formed from two parts united by a suture, and longer and sharper teeth than alligators, plus caimans tend to be more agile and crocodile-like in their movements.
The calcium rivets on caiman scales make their hides stiffer and thus less valuable than those of alligators and crocodiles, both of which have a similar appearance, but are more pliable.
Several extinct forms are known, including Purussaurus, a giant Miocene genus that grew to  and the equally large Mourasuchus, which had a wide duck-like snout.
Behavior
The caimans are predators and, like alligators and the crocodiles, their diet consists of a great deal of fish.
The caimans also hunt insects, birds and small mammals and reptiles.
Due to the large size and ferocious nature of the caimans, they have few natural predators within their environments.
Humans are the main predators of the caimans as they have been hunted for their meat and skin.
Jaguars and anacondas are the only other predators of the caimans, but they prey only on the smaller specimens.
During summer or droughts, the caiman may dig a burrow and go into a form of summer hibernation called aestivation.
Female caimans build a large nest in which to lay their eggs.
These nests can be more than  wide.
Female caimans lay between 10 and 50 eggs, which hatch within about six weeks.
Once they have hatched, the mother caiman takes her young to a shallow pool of water, where they can learn how to hunt and swim.
Taxonomy
Subfamily Caimaninae
Genus †Acresuchus
Genus †Brachychampsa
Genus †Bottosaurus
Genus †Centenariosuchus
Genus †Chinatichampsus
Genus †Protocaiman
Genus †Kuttanacaiman
Genus †Gnatusuchus
Genus †Culebrasuchus
Genus †Eocaiman
Genus †Globidentosuchus
Genus Paleosuchus
P. palpebrosus, Cuvier's dwarf caiman
P. trigonatus, smooth-fronted caiman
Genus †Purussaurus
Genus †Mourasuchus
Genus †Necrosuchus
Genus †Orthogenysuchus
Genus †Tsoabichi
Genus Caiman
C. yacare, yacare caiman
C. crocodilus, spectacled caiman
C. c. crocodilus, spectacled caiman
C. c. apaporiensis, Rio Apaporis caiman
C. c. fuscus, Brown caiman
†C. lutescens
†C. venezuelensis
†C. wannlangstoni
†C. brevirostris
C. latirostris, broad-snouted caiman
Genus Melanosuchus
†M. fisheri
M. niger, black caiman
Phylogeny
Caimaninae is cladistically defined as Caiman crocodylus (the spectacled caiman) and all species closer to it than to Alligator mississippiensis (the American alligator).
This is a stem-based definition for caimaninae, and means that it includes more basal extinct caimanine ancestors that are more closely related to living caimans than to alligators.
Below is a cladogram showing the phylogeny of Caimaninae, modified from Hastings et al. (2013).
References
Category:Crocodilians Category:Alligatoridae Category:Selandian first appearances Category:Extant Selandian first appearances
mk:Кајмани
