Crocodylus palustris ( Lesson, 1831 )

Figueroa, Alex, Low, Martyn E. Y. & Lim, Kelvin K. P., 2023, Singapore’s herpetofauna: updated and annotated checklist, history, conservation, and distribution, Zootaxa 5287 (1), pp. 1-378 : 258-259

Crocodylus palustris ( Lesson, 1831) — Erroneous.

Mugger Crocodile

Singapore records.

Crocodilus trigonops — Gray, 1844: vii, 62, 63.

Crocodilus palustris — Boulenger, 1889a: 286.— Flower, 1896: 862.— Flower, 1899: 625.—Ridley, 1899: 189.— Boulenger, 1912: 5.

Bombifrons siamensis (non-Schneider, 1801)— Gray, 1867: 144.— Gray, 1872: 13.

Bombifrons indicus — Gray, 1873: 102.

Bombifrons siamensis var.— Gray, 1873: 103.

Remarks. Crocodylus palustris ranges from Iran east to Pakistan, India, Sri Lanka, Nepal, Bangladesh, Bhutan, and Myanmar ( da Silva & Lenin 2010). Gray (1844) first listed C. palustris as occurring in Singapore based on a young, stuffed specimen at NHMUK. Cantor (1847a) described C. palustris from Penang, but it is believed he confused it with C. porosus ( Flower 1899; Boulenger 1912). In his account of C. palustris, Ģnther (1864) only mentioned specimens from India and Sri Lanka, but did not discuss the species purported presence in southeast Asia. Shortly thereafter ( Boulenger 1912), the presence of C. palustris in southeast Asia was discontinued, first by Flower (1914) who stated that “[n]o absolutely unimpeachable evidence appears to exist of its occurrence in the Malay Peninsula or Archipelago” and by Smith (1930, 1931) who delimited its distribution to the Indian Subcontinent. No other publication references the C. palustris specimen from Singapore, and furthermore, there are three additional specimens from 1910 stored at MCZ that have Singapore as locality, but with a question mark. Thus, the only explanation must be that the specimens were traded in Singapore or the locality is incorrect (Pocklington 2021).

LKCNHM & NHMUK Museum specimens. Singapore (no locality): BMNH (no #) (no date).

Additional Singapore museum specimens. Singapore (no locality): MCZ.