Appearance
While its appearance is very similar to the only other living member of the genus, the American alligator, there are a few differences. Usually this species only attains an adult length of 5 feet (1.5 m) and a mass of 80 pounds (36 kg). Exceptional large males have reached 7 feet (2.1 m) in length and 100 pounds (45 kg) in weight. Reports are known of alligators in China reaching 10 feet (3.0 m) in centuries past, but these are now generally considered apocryphal. Unlike the American alligator, the Chinese alligator is fully armored; even the belly is armored, which is a feature of only a few crocodilians.
Read more about this topic: Chinese Alligator
Famous quotes containing the word appearance:
“You speak of poverty and dependence. Who are poor and dependent? Who are rich and independent? When was it that men agreed to respect the appearance and not the reality?”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“February is a suitable month for dying. Everything around is dead, the trees black and frozen so that the appearance of green shoots two months hence seems preposterous, the ground hard and cold, the snow dirty, the winter hateful, hanging on too long.”
—Anna Quindlen (b. 1952)
“What! Would you make no distinction between hypocrisy and devotion? Would you give them the same names, and respect the mask as you do the face? Would you equate artifice and sincerity? Confound appearance with truth? Regard the phantom as the very person? Value counterfeit as cash?”
—Molière [Jean Baptiste Poquelin] (1622–1673)