I've recently acquired a huge alligator skull. I am wondering how to accurately determine the size of the alligator. I've been told it was 15 or 16 feet but that usually means 10 or 12 feet, right? There are only a few teeth left but the two upper 9th teeth are each about the size of half a hotdog. This animal came from New Orleans many years ago.The skull is 27 inches long, 14 inches wide at the widest point (the lower jaw), and about 10 inches between the two big 9th teeth, and about 9 inches tall.
Are these measurements enough for anyone to make an accurate guess to its body size?
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Big Alligator Skull
FX
Feb 05, 2004 03:55 PM
Replies (3)
Jug
Feb 05, 2004 04:37 PM
Measure the length between the rear edge of the nostrils and the middle of the eye socket. The length between those points in in. is usually within a foot or so of the gators length in feet. That should give you at least a resonable guess as to its size.
Seth
Danny Conner
Feb 06, 2004 09:08 AM
Congratulations that is a huge skull. 13-14 feet for sure. D.C.
BrianSmith
Feb 10, 2004 03:31 AM
Sounds like a big one all right. At least 12 feet I would say. The biggest crocodilian skull I ever saw was one that my friend Mike Stokes helped to unearth from the banks of the Amazon in 1989. It is/was about 6 feet long and 4 feet wide and is still on display at the Los Angeles Museum of Natural History. It was estimated to have come from a 45 foot plus, prehistoric crocodile. Truly amazing.
>>I've recently acquired a huge alligator skull. I am wondering how to accurately determine the size of the alligator. I've been told it was 15 or 16 feet but that usually means 10 or 12 feet, right? There are only a few teeth left but the two upper 9th teeth are each about the size of half a hotdog. This animal came from New Orleans many years ago.The skull is 27 inches long, 14 inches wide at the widest point (the lower jaw), and about 10 inches between the two big 9th teeth, and about 9 inches tall.
>>Are these measurements enough for anyone to make an accurate guess to its body size?
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