Alligator mississippiensis is in the family Crocodylidae. This family has existed since the upper Triassic period, but the modern family members appear in the fossil record as little as 80 million years ago. There are three subfamilies, Alligatorinae, Crocodylinae, and Gavaialinae. Some people also include a fourth subfamily, Tomistominae, which contains a single species, the False Gharial. Alligatorinae includes the American and Chinese alligators and the caimans. Crocodylinae includes the crocodiles. Gavaialinae contains the gharials (or …showed first 75 words of 1319 total…

…showed last 75 words of 1319 total…environment. Everglades: The ecosystem and its restoration. 485-505. Rhodes, WE, JW Lang. 1995. Sex ratios of naturally-incubated alligator hatchlings: Field techniques and initial results. Proceedings of the fourty-ninth annual conference of the southeastern association of fish and wildlife agencies. 640- 646. Warburton, SJ, D Hastings, T Wang. 1995. Responses to chronic hypoxia in embryonic alligators. Journol of Experimental Zoology, 273:44-50. Wilkinson, PM, WE Rhodes. Growth rates of American Alligators in coastal South Carolina. Journol of Wildlife Management, 61:397- 402.