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I knew someone who dealt in exotic animals and they came to work with a baby caiman alligator in a Tupperware because they were selling it after work
Was it well behaved?
- caiman
- alligator
These are two different species. While caiman are part of the Alligatoridae family, they are not alligators apparently.
Caimans are distinguished from alligators...
Source:Wikipedia
Let me go back in Time and double check
Alligator is the common name for the family and also the common name of a few specific species. It's kind of like how all tortoises are turtles, but not all turtles are tortoises. All caiman are alligators, but not all alligators are caimans.
From Wikipedia
Caiman is an alligatorid belonging to the subfamily Caimaninae, one of two primary lineages within the Alligatoridae family, the other being alligators
Alligatorinae is a subfamily within the family Alligatoridae that contains the alligators and their closest extinct relatives, and is the sister taxon to Caimaninae
Alligators and caimans split about 53-65 million years ago
Alligatoridae contains eight living species: two alligators within Alligatorinae, and the six caimans of Caimaninae
The true alligators are today represented by two species
...the subfamily Caimaninae, which differ from the alligator...
Technically they are Alligatoridae, but when people refer to "Alligators" they mean the Genus: Alligatorinae. This would be like saying that the Caimans and Alligators are both Crocodiles because they come from the Order: Crocodilia.
I understand that common names getting mixed use in families, genus, and species can be confusing, but you're being willfully obtuse here just to double down on useless pedantry.
Not my fault it says "Alligator and Caiman" not Alligators including Caiman. I'm just a guy reading Wikipedia.
Reading is about more than reciting facts and quoting sources. Sure, you can read, but you have utterly failed to comprehend the context or the article or the actual substance of my comments.
Ok