Despite its fearsome appearance, the gharial (or gavial) - a crocodile found in the Indus River and in Indian Subcontinent - lives mainly on fish. Gharials are among the largest members of the crocodile family and have hardly changed in 200 million years. A male can weigh 200 kg and be 21 ft (6.4 m) long from its panhandle snout to its thick, scaly tail.
The gharial is found in clear, fast-flowing water. To catch fish, it snaps with its long, slender jaws (which are easier to clap together underwater than are broad jaws) and seizes small fish with its sharp teeth. Like many other crocodiles, gharials were hunted for their skins; this, along with habitat loss, brought them almost to extinction. Now they are an endangered species.
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