Smallest true alligator species

The smallest species of true alligator (i.e. belonging to the genus Alligator) is the Chinese alligator Alligator sinensis. Males are larger than females, but even exceptionally large male specimens have only attained a total length of 2.1 m and a weight of 45 kg, whereas average-sized male specimens are no more than 1.5 m and 36 kg. This makes it much smaller than the only other living species of true alligator, the American alligator A. mississipiensis.

In former ages, reports of Chinese alligators attaining lengths of 3 m or more sometimes emerged from China, but these reports have never been confirmed. Nevertheless, bearing in mind that this now greatly endangered species was once commonly killed for its meat, or simply through fear or as a pest, it is likely – as was so often the case with sizeable species in bygone times – that the very largest specimens were targeted first, thus removing from the total species population all of the superlative specimens at a very early time in humanity's history.