… years ago.

The name alligator is an anglicized form of el lagarto, the Spanish term for “lizard”, which early Spanish explorers and settlers in Florida called the alligator.

Synonyms of alligator

noun: crocodile; plural: crocodiles; related terms: crocodilian, crocodilian reptile, genus Alligator, Alligator mississipiensis, American alligator, Alligator sinensis, Chinese alligator.

… the term is also used for the amphibian caecilians and the slow worm Anguis, a legless burrowing lizard. Invertebrate animals commonly called “worms” include annelids (earthworms), nematodes (roundworms), flatworms, marine polychaete worms (bristle worms), marine nemertean worms (“bootlace worms”), marine Chaetognatha (arrow worms) and insect larvae such as caterpillars, grubs, and maggots.

Worms vary in size from microscopic to over a metre in length for marine polychaete worms …

… covered in overlapping scales. Many species of snakes have skulls with many more joints than their lizard ancestors, enabling them to swallow prey much larger than their heads with their highly mobile jaws. In second image: Walterinnesia aegyptia is a genus of venomous elapid snake, also known as the Desert Black Snake or Desert Cobra. It was long considered the only species within the genus Walterinnesia. However, it was recently found that the eastern populations actually represent a …