Special Features

Alligators have a number of special features that have allowed them to stick around for 180 million years. For example, alligators are armor-plated. Bony plates inside the skin, called osteoderms or scutes, make the skin very hard to penetrate. Each spike or ridge along the back of an alligator is made by a piece of bone in that section of skin.

Osteoderms (bony plates under the skin) make an alligator's skin difficult to penetrate.

Even though alligators are huge and cold-blooded, they can be surprisingly fast, with a top speed of 11 miles per hour over short distances. For comparison, the fastest humans running at world-record times in a 100-meter dash are running about 20 miles per hour, but a typical adult human is no faster than an alligator. This makes it possible for an alligator to escape from most situations on land and get into the water. It also makes it possible for an alligator to overtake an unsuspecting human – as in the case of one of the Florida victims, who was out for a morning jog.

Image courtesy © StockVisions/AGE An alligator's eye

Alligator eyes have two sets of eyelids. The outer lids are like human eyelids. They're made of skin and close top-to-bottom. The inner lids are clear and close back-to-front. While an alligator is just hanging out or swimming, these inner eyelids protect the alligator's eyes and provide clearer vision in the underwater environment.

When swimming underwater, alligators are watertight. Flaps close off the ears and nostrils, the inner eyelids protect the eyes, and a special flap called the palatal valve closes at the back of the throat to keep water out of the throat, stomach and lungs. Alligators can stay underwater for a pretty long time. A typical dive might last 10 to 20 minutes. In a pinch, an alligator can stay underwater for two hours if it is at rest. And, in very cold water, an alligator can last up to eight hours submerged.