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Croc in a Tree

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No, I definitely did not get overly carried away with this one. Nope.

Inspired by the recent news about living crocodilians routinely climbing trees, here's the recently extinct New Caledonian terrestrial crocodile Mekosuchus inexpectatus basking on a branch. That, and a few other organisms.

The little lizard thing on the lower branch is a crested gecko (Correlophus ciliatus ). The plants pictured include:
Asplenium sp. - the bird's nest fern
Austrogramme marginata
Tmesipteris sp.
Nepenthes sp. - the pitcher plant
Dendrobium ngoyense - the yellow orchid
D. masarangense - the little white orchid
Amyema scandens - the weird red parasitic vine

There are no leaves or flowers of the actual tree visible, but judging by the obligate symbiont fungi (Podoserpula miranda, only described in 2013) it must be the endemic oak gum (Arillastrum gummiferum).

In case I sound too smart, don't worry. I have no idea whether all these species live in the same habitats or even in the same part of New Caledonia. And they're probably not all epiphytes. I just stumbled upon them and liked them. I could not even find names for all the plants, but they're drawn after photos people have taken in the forests of New Caledonia.
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evolutionguy321's avatar

Elegant isn't it. The last of the land crocodilians with cat like niches and his little crested neighbor, which licks his eyes