.
Last month, a 3 meters long, captive -but wild caught as an adult-, 103 kg , toothless Morelet´s crocodile (Crocodilus moreletti) died in the CETMAR (Centro de Bachillerato Tecnológico del Mar) in the city of Campeche, Mexico. They have more than 200 crocs for education purposes and it is one of the largest captive croc facilities in the southeast of Mexico
They call us right away after the death of the animal and the necropsy was very interesting with a fresh carcass. We found lots of chronic-degenerative changes, such as cirrhosis, splenomegalia, hydrothorax, hydropericardium. The animal presented several external injuries in the head, thorax and tail from continued bites from other large crocodiles in their enclosure. It has a consolidated fracture of the radius bone of the left front limb and has several missing toes from an old injury in the right hind limb. We found a large lead fishing rod in the stomach, that given the erosion of the rod, it has been there for a long time causing chronic lead poisoning in this specimen. We are still waiting for the histopathology and chemical biochemistry samples to come back from the lab. We discussed the case with Dr. Daryl Heard from theUniversity of Florida
They call us right away after the death of the animal and the necropsy was very interesting with a fresh carcass. We found lots of chronic-degenerative changes, such as cirrhosis, splenomegalia, hydrothorax, hydropericardium. The animal presented several external injuries in the head, thorax and tail from continued bites from other large crocodiles in their enclosure. It has a consolidated fracture of the radius bone of the left front limb and has several missing toes from an old injury in the right hind limb. We found a large lead fishing rod in the stomach, that given the erosion of the rod, it has been there for a long time causing chronic lead poisoning in this specimen. We are still waiting for the histopathology and chemical biochemistry samples to come back from the lab. We discussed the case with Dr. Daryl Heard from the
Some pictures of the necropsy
(copyrighted material)
(copyrighted material)
The toothless Morelet´s crocodile. Not a single teeth in the mandibles of this old croc. A bizarre thing indeed!
Sindy -from sin diente- the croc, still alive a couple of days before it died. The animal was caquexic, anemic and lethargic but was still eating.
Missing toes most likely as a result of territorial fights
Extensive injuries in the back from bites from other crocs.
A consolidated fracture of the left front limb
Ok. Lets get to work ! A nice clean cut to open the rib case
I was assisted by Sergio Padilla (MSc student, Ecosur) and Ernesto (Biology mayor student UAC). We were working at night but yet the temperature was about 30 C with some 80% relative humidity. As you can see, I was soak wet with sweating. The necropsy was about 3.5 hours long.
Hydrotorax. You can see the liquid coming out as the thoraxic cavity is opened up. It has more than 2 liters of this pale, viscuous liquid.
The liver was dark and cirrhotic. Extremelly hard at cut.
The spleen was large and hard at cut
This is the large lead fishing rod that caused chronic lead poisoning in this animal
The "Compadres Cocodrileros": Sergio, Maurcio, Ernesto and a friend
A job well done: The whole necropsy crew.