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:
“Every natural fact is a symbol of some spiritual fact. Every appearance in nature corresponds to some state of the mind, and that state of the mind can only be described by presenting that natural appearance as its picture.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)
“The President has paid dear for his White House. It has commonly cost him all his peace, and the best of his manly attributes. To preserve for a short time so conspicuous an appearance before the world, he is content to eat dust before the real masters who stand erect behind the throne.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)
“When appearance and reality coincide, philosophy and literary criticism find themselves with nothing to say.”
—Mason Cooley (b. 1927)