The Biggest Alligator In The World Is Nothing Compared To The Biggest Crocodile

Alligators and crocodiles are perhaps the most fearsome and prehistoric of all the animals that share the planet with humans. The jaws of the American alligator can chomp with up to 3,000 pounds of force, outclassed only by its cousin the saltwater crocodile, which can bite with over 3,600 pounds, more than any other animal. 

If you guessed based on their bite strength that alligators and crocodiles are big animals, you'd be right. American alligators generally weigh around 1,000 pounds and grow to be about 12 feet long. The saltwater crocodile just edges out its American cousins with an average weight of 1,000 pounds but growing up to 17 feet. But those are just rookie numbers. The heaviest alligator on record was over 1,300 pounds, while the longest was over 15 feet, but even that pales in comparison to its crocodile cousins: The largest croc ever measured was massive at over 20 feet long and weighing over 2,300 pounds.

Depending on who you ask, there are between 22 and 28 species of crocodilians living today, and they're spread across the world on every continent except Antarctica. The order Crocodilia can be subdivided into four general categories: alligators, their close cousins caimans, crocodiles, and gharials.

Despite how common alligators are in the southeastern US, there are only two species, the other being the rare Chinese alligator, which is on the brink of extinction. Caimans, the smallest crocodilians, are found throughout Central and South America, with Cuiver's dwarf caimans, which usually grow to no more than five feet, being the smallest of the bunch. Both alligators and caimans can be distinguished from other crocodilians by their blunt snouts.

"True" crocodiles have the most diversity out of all the families and are the most geographically widespread. The smallest member of the crocodile clan is the dwarf crocodile, which only grows to about six feet. In contrast to alligators, crocodile snouts are more pointy and their lower teeth are visible when their mouths are closed. Finally, there are the tomistomas and gharials, which are the oddest-looking ones in the order with their long, thin snouts. Despite their unique appearance, they are second only to the crocodiles in size, growing up to 16 feet and 20 feet, respectively.

There are two ways to decide what alligator tops the list of largest ever: by length or by sheer mass. The longest alligator ever measured was killed by Mandy Stokes in Alabama in 2014. The struggle to hunt and kill the gargantuan gator took five hours over water and land before it was over. When Stokes and her family brought the beast back to shore, it was easy to measure its more-than-15-foot length, but their first attempt to weigh it destroyed the winch used to lift it. After calling in a backhoe, the weight was finally called at 1,011.5 pounds, the third heaviest alligator on record.

The heaviest alligator ever weighed was killed by Mike Cottingham in Arkansas in 2012. Cottingham's gator fight was much shorter at just 20 minutes, but his catch was so big he needed four friends to get it out of the water, and inside its stomach they found a five-foot-long alligator. At 13 feet 3 inches, Cottingham's gator doesn't make the list for longest, but its final weight of 1,380 pounds does make it the heaviest.

If you're searching for the largest crocodile ever recorded, you don't have to decide between length or weight because the same massive individual tops both categories. Lolong the saltwater crocodile caught the world's attention in 2011 when he was captured in the Philippines. Lolong was so enormous it took 100 people to get him out of the water, and he was suspected of eating at least two people before he was tracked down and caught. 

After he was captured, Lolong was taken to the Bunawan Eco-Park and Research Center, where he weighed in at a whopping 2,370 pounds and measured 20 feet and 3 inches from snout to tail. Sadly, Lolong's retirement lasted only two years before he was found dead in his enclosure in 2013. It's important to note that Lolong is the largest crocodile for which we have verifiable measurements: There are reports of crocs over 23 feet long in Bhitarkanika National Park in India.

It's fair to say that there aren't very many species of crocodilians in the world, but that wasn't always the case. The crocodiles, alligators, and gharials of the world today are just a remnant of the hundreds of crocodilian species that once roamed the Earth. Some of these alligator ancestors were much larger than today's gators, and some were just built different. One of the smallest specimens that has been discovered is the Trilophosuchus, which lived in Australia around 13 million years ago. Only part of its skull was found, but when scientists extrapolated its size, they estimated it measured less than 3 feet and weighed around 5 pounds. 

The title for largest-ever crocodilian is a bit contentious, but Sarcosuchus imperator is certainly a contender. Sarcosuchus — a possible dinosaur hunter — lived in Africa around 110 million years ago and was a monster, measuring over 40 feet long with an estimated weight of over 17,000 pounds. It also needs to be mentioned that crocodilians weren't always carnivores. There are examples of herbivorous crocodilians that showed up in the fossil record around 200 million years ago and lived until 66 million years before the present.

You may not be able to see a Trilophosuchus or Sarcosuchus anymore, but there are still plenty of crocodilians to be found today. The most populous group of crocodilians right now is the American alligators, which number over three million from Texas to Florida. If you're keen on seeing a crocodile and an alligator during the same vacation in the States, you'll need to head to southernmost Florida, where the range of the American crocodile and American alligator overlap.

If you want to see a caiman, you'll have to venture to South America, Central America, or the Caribbean. There are six caiman species and all of them are thriving, so seeing one in the wild is more a matter of geography than anything else. Crocodiles are much more widespread and can be found almost anywhere in the tropics that has a source of freshwater. Although some croc species are thriving, there are some that are on the brink of extinction. There may be less than 100 Philippine crocodiles left in the wild, for example, and their numbers are decreasing.

If you don't feel like traveling the world, your best bet to see one of these majestic monsters is at your local zoo, many of which are involved in conservation efforts.