gharial

English

Wikispecies

Alternative forms

Etymology

From Hindi घड़ियाल (ghaṛiyāl). Doublet of gavial.

Pronunciation

Noun

gharial (plural gharials or gharial)

  1. A crocodilian of species Gavialis gangeticus, of the family Gavialidae.
    • 1992, John B. Thorbjarnarson, Harry Messel, F. Wayne King, James Perran Ross, editors, Crocodiles: An Action Plan for Their Conservation, page 112:
      Placed in a family by itself, the Gavialidae, the gharial has long been separated from the rest of the crocodilian stock, with the possible exception of Tomistoma (Densmore 1983).
    • 1993, Arjan Singh, The Legend of the Maneater‎[1], page 8:
      We crossed the Rapti at Bijlipur, three miles from Balrampur, over a pontoon bridge, from where we would often see marsh crocodile and gharial lying on the sandbanks with their mouths open, absorbing the solar heat.
    • 1996, M. V. Subba Rao, Nesting Behaviour of the Indian Crocodiles, Gavialis gangeticus, Crocodylus plaustris and Crocodylus porosus (Reptilia: Crocodylidae), Geethabali R. Ramamurthi, Readings in Behaviour, page 213,
      Gharials, Gavialis gangeticus are the inhabitants of deep, fast flowing rivers.
    • 2010, Steve Parker, Crocodiles‎[2], page 18:
      The gharial breathes air into its lungs, like caimans, alligators, and crocodiles. It can hold its breath and stay underwater for a long time—more than half an hour. Gharials can also hunt underwater. They even eat their food there.
    • 2013, Eric Dinerstein, Discovering Big Cat Country: On the trail of tigers and snow leopards, unnumbered page:
      One of the goals of our river expedition was to locate gharial. Gharial help crocodilians lay claim to being the ugliest reptiles, and perhaps the most ancient.

Usage notes

Technically, extending the definition to family Gavialidae results in including just one other extant species: the false gavial (Tomistoma schlegelii). However, the subfamily Tomistominae is often (perhaps usually) excluded from Gavialidae.

Synonyms

Derived terms

Translations

See also

References

  • “gharial”, in OneLook Dictionary Search.

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