It’s a common conceit that nothing lasts in Florida. Even the climate and the peninsula itself have seen lots of change, albeit on a geological timeline rather than in human reckoning. But one thing has been unchanged: the American alligator, which hasn’t changed in over 8 million years.
“If we could step back in time … you’d basically see the same animal crawling around then as you would see today in the Southeast,” says Evan Whiting, a former University of Florida undergraduate and lead author of the study.
Very few vertebrate species last that long without evolving. It’s not that the American alligator hasn’t evolved at all, but it just hasn’t evolved lately. They’re kind of perfect the way they are. In fact, Crocodilia, the order alligators belong to, is about 84 million years old and has ancestors dating back to 200 million years ago. What this means is that alligators and their cousins are really, really good at surviving.
The American alligator evolved in competition with a 25-foot-long marine crocodile, which hunted its prey in salt water. That might be why alligators prefer fresh water. It seems that alligators don’t have to adapt much; they can just continue to do things their way without much concern. But there is one thing they’re having trouble adapting to: humans.
Alligators show up in swimming pools and on golf courses, or just wandering around the campus of the University of Florida, but even if the changes in their natural habitat doesn’t bother the alligators, it certainly does bother the humans who currently occupy that habitat. Alligators were almost hunted to extinction early in the 20th century, but they were saved by the Endangered Species Act.
A better understanding of alligators’ evolution, regardless of how slow it has been, will help us conserve them.
“If we know from the fossil record that alligators have thrived in certain types of habitats since deep in time, we know which habitats to focus conservation and management efforts on today,” Whiting says.