West African Slender-Snouted Crocodile

Mecistops cataphractus (species), “African Slender-Snouted Crocodile”, “Slender-Snouted Crocodile”

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The West African slender-snouted crocodile (Mecistops cataphractus) is a critically endangered species of African crocodile. It is one of five species of crocodile in Africa, the other four being the Central African slender-snouted, Nile, West African and dwarf crocodiles. The slender-snouted crocodile (M. cataphractus) was thought to be distributed across west Africa and into central Africa but the central African species has been separated as the Central African slender-snouted crocodile (M. leptorhynchus) based on studies in 2014 and 2018 that indicated that both were distinct species. The name cataphractus is retained for the West African species as that species was described first based on specimens from western Africa. The two species diverged about 6.5–7.5 mya, living in different…