Brown Caiman (Caiman crocodilus fuscus)

[Daleos89]

Can anyone tell me if it is still counted as a sub-species of the Spectacled caiman?

only reason i'm asking is ...I was chatting to someone about how many species there are of caiman, i said 6, he says 7. n apparently theres still confusion as to whether the brown is still seen as a subspecies of C.crocodilus or if it is a species in its own right...

thankya in advance to anyone that replies

[Croc dude]

Howdy.

Caiman crocodilus fuscus is a sub-species of Caiman crocodilus.

The caimans are:
Caiman crocodilus sp
Caiman latirostris
Caiman yacare
Melanosuchus niger
Paleosuchus palpebrosus
Paleosuchus trigonatus

Note that caiman taxonomy is not an exact science, with many different view points, so this may change in the future, but at the moment, those are the official species, with Caiman crocodilus having a few subspecies, such as Caiman crocodilus crocodilus (the common caiman), C c fuscus (the brown caiman, from the northern end of the range, going up into central America), C c apaporiensis (an elusive little fella from the Rio Apaporiensis in Colombia).

Please excuse any spelling mistakes.This is from the top of my head, and I had a late night last night....

Colin

[Daleos89]

thnkya for the info

[Gaboon]

im not saying anything .


Just asking where this info sourced? Not desputing it, just curious as my source states Caiman fuscus as a species not a ssp of from C. crocodilus. As you said Colin there is some difficulty here with this taxon.

[Daleos89]

shut it!...i win you lose! :p

[Gaboon]

Originally Posted by Daleos89

shut it!...i win you lose! :p

Thats debatable

[Daleos89]

no...maths is debatable....wether ur actuall a man or not is debatable...this however, is not :p

[Croc dude]

Howdy.

Sorry - not logged on for a few days.

Check out the Crocodile Specialist Group website, or crocodilian.com. These websites us the currently recognised, or 'official', taxonomy.

The CSG website is: iucncsg.org

See ya,

Colin

[Gaboon]

Originally Posted by Daleos89

no...maths is debatable....wether ur actuall a man or not is debatable...this however, is not :p

Daleos - Of course you hold authority. Where theres two schools of thought there is a debate even of one is sourced from 'official' information and the other isnt. im not making it up and i very much suspect i know what im on about a little more than you do. I dont think your really grasping what taxonomy is all about these days and how competitive its becoming with the use of new techniques and schematic principles being updated, shuffled etc. The scientific community is always debating this is the essence of science itself, so there really is no official result in any reliable literal sense, unless debating stop as a result is conclusive beyond a shadow of a doubt. This level of conclusiveness can be rare in taxonomy.

I dont care for getting one over so put you handbag down!

Colin - cheers for the second link i was aware of the first but not the second. My source published by academic press says different though it is a few years older than the sites so i guess it could be 'officially wrong' now but i did find a paper stating there is still confusion within the crocodile taxonomy world. Only glanced at it.