Caiman yacare

The yacare caiman, also known commonly as the jacare caiman, Paraguayan caiman, piranha caiman, red caiman, and southern spectacled caiman, is a species of caiman, a crocodilian in the family Alligatoridae. The species is indigenous to Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, and Paraguay. Brown in color and covered with dark blotches, males grow to a total length of 2–3 m and weigh around 40–50 kg (88–110 lb); while females grow to 1.4 m long and about 15–20 kg (33–44 lb). Typical habitats of this caiman include lakes, rivers, and wetlands. Its diet primarily consists of aquatic animals, such as snails, and occasionally land vertebrates. Mating occurs in the rainy season and eggs hatch in March, with young fending for themselves as soon as they hatch. The yacare caiman was hunted heavily for its skin to use for leather in the 1980s, which caused its population to decrease significantly. However, trading restrictions placed since have caused its population to increase. Its population in the Pantanal is about 10 million, and it is listed as least concern on the IUCN Red List.

Caiman yacare

Bernard DUPONT from FRANCE · CC BY-SA 2.0 · via Wikipedia/Commons. May be a photograph of a specimen, or an artist’s reconstruction — an interpretation of a skeleton, since colour and soft tissue are almost never preserved.

On record

Recorded, not inferred
Sits inside
CaimanPBDB
Diet
carnivorePBDB, for Crocodylia
Motility
actively mobilePBDB, for Osteichthyes
Environment
marinePBDB, for Mesoeucrocodylia

Time the record covers

At least 5.4 million years on record.

The record covers at least 7.246 Mya to 1.8 Mya. No occurrence read is dated outside 11.63 Mya to 774 ka.

Miocene — about 2 of 3 occurrencesMiocenePliocene — about 0 of 3 occurrencesPliocenePleistocene — about 1 of 3 occurrencesPleistocene12–11 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences11–11 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences11–11 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences11–10 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences10–9.8 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences9.8–9.4 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences9.4–9.0 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences9.0–8.6 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences8.6–8.2 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences8.2–7.8 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences7.8–7.4 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences7.4–7.0 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences7.0–6.6 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences6.6–6.2 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences6.2–5.8 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences5.8–5.4 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences5.4–5.0 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences5.0–4.6 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences1.9–1.5 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences1.5–1.1 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences1.1–669 ka Mya — about 0.3 occurrences7.246 Mya1.8 Mya12.1 Mya274 ka

3 occurrences of Caiman yacare on record, most of them in the Miocene. The Paleobiology Database records this as a living group, and the chart stops with its fossils rather than at the present. Bar height is expected occurrences, not a count: each fossil is spread across the span it is dated to, so a tall narrow bar means tight dating and a low wide one means loose.

When

3 occurrences

These are dates about fossils, not the animal: the record can only begin after it arose and end before it died out, so either end may reach further. Shares are expected occurrences: a fossil dated to a span is counted partly in each period it straddles. More on what this infers.

Found in

3 formations

Ituzaingo — 31.48°S, 60.23°WSan Gregorio — 11.30°N, 70.19°WSolimões — 10.13°S, 67.81°W

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The named rock units Caiman yacare has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed.

Caiman yacare and its relatives

Miocene

Where Caiman yacare and its relatives were recorded in the Miocene.

Found in the same rock

174 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 2 sites for Caiman yacare, and this reads all of them. The number is how many of those sites it was catalogued from too. The 24 sharing the most are listed.

This is not a list of everything alive at the time. It is only what has come out of the same ground as this animal and been written down.

Entered from

3 references

Each of the 3 occurrences read was entered from one of these publications, ordered by how many each accounts for. This is not a search for papers mentioning the name. Each entry links to doi.org. Relayed as the Paleobiology Database holds them, not checked against what they resolve to.

Media and terms

Media content2

Picture of Caiman yacare

Credit
Bernard DUPONT from FRANCE
Licence
CC BY-SA 2.0
Commercial use
the licence allows it

3D model

Source
Sketchfab
Licence
CC Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike
Commercial use
the licence does not allow it

Smithsonian Open Access and MorphoSource were not reached for this taxon, so this list is what the others held rather than everything there is.

The description on this site

Licence
CC BY-SA 4.0

This is what the site found, which is not the same as what exists.

Keep going

What may have been alongside itCaiman through timeFormations of the MioceneThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. Daudin 1802