20 Amazing Crocodile Facts - Our Planet

Crocodiles really do produce tears. Because, while eating, they swallow too much air, which gets in touch with lachrymal glands (glands that produce tears) and forces tears to flow. But it’s not actually crying. The term “Crocodile tears”  (and equivalents in many other languages) refers to a false, insincere display of emotion, such as a hypocrite crying fake tears of grief.

It is derived from an ancient anecdote that crocodiles weep in order to lure their prey, or that they cry for the victims they are eating, first told in the Bibliotheca by Photios I, who was the Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople. This tale was first spread widely in English in the stories of the Travels of Sir John Mandeville  in the 14th century and appears in several of William Shakespeare’s plays.

Their night vision is very good and they are mostly nocturnal hunters.

One of the scariest crocodile facts: crocodiles have the strongest bite ever measured. Paleobiologist Gregory M. Erickson and colleagues tested the bite forces of all 23 living crocodilian species. The strongest, saltwater crocodiles (naturally) slammed their jaws shut with 3,700 pounds per square inch (psi), or 16,460 Newtons, of bite force. For comparison, a lion has a bite force of 1,314.7 Newtons  at the canine tips and 2,023.7 Newtons at the carnassials. But, despite this enormous bite force,

Crocodiles have the most sophisticated heart in the animal kingdom, and actively change the destination of blood that flows through it depending on requirements.

They do not chew their food. Many large crocodilians swallow stones, which may act as ballast to balance their bodies or assist in crushing food, similar to grit ingested by birds.