Alligator

The alligator is a reptile. Turtles and snakes are also reptiles. Reptiles are cold-blooded animals that have backbones and breathe with lungs. Like many other reptiles, alligators have thick, scaly hides and creep around on short legs.
Alligators look like big lizards. The largest kind is the American alligator. It can grow to be 19 feet (5.8 m) long. But most are only about half this size. The Chinese alligator is only about four feet (1.2 m) long.

Alligators have long, powerful tails that help them to swim and to fight off enemies. They have flat heads with long, rounded snouts. Their jaws are very strong and they have sharp teeth.

A female alligator lays about 40 eggs in a nest buried in the mud. She guards the nest from animals that like to eat the egges. The babies are about six inches (15 cm) long when they are born.

Alligators have many close relatives. The crocodile is one. The crocodile has a longer, narrower snout than the alligator. It can live in salt water.