Now here's a real Croc!

Reported in friday’s issue of Science published by NAAS no less:
<HR>Remember the urban legend about crocodiles thriving in New York City’s sewers? A team of German zoologists has stumbled upon a population of Nile crocodiles in an equally improbable setting: the middle of the Sahara desert.<HR>

The crocs were found in a series of caves in a plataue region of southern Mali. Four nile crocodile were observed directly, by researchers who entered the caves. No mention of albinism was made in the article. :rolleyes:
<P align=“CENTER”>Tris</P>


I hate quotations.
–Ralph Waldo Emerson

I recall seeing a show or article that highlighted a group of crocs in an oasis surrounded by cliffs. I don’t recall if they were Nile crocs but they were big. I could understand how they survived, but how did they get there in the first place ??

Probably what happened is that they were there, and the environment changed around them, trapping them in that oasis.

Would there actually be enough for a large predator to eat in an oasis?

Trapped just like myself, except this ain’t no oasis.

I was thinking that might be the case, but I got to wondering, how long does it take for an oasis to be isolated ? How many generations of crocs lived isolated like that ? Could we send Phaedrus to observe speciation ?