B32
Skull of spectacled caiman

Spectacled caiman is an alligator that belongs to Family Alligatoridae and Genus Caiman. They are distributed in a wide range of Central and South America. This is a typical species of alligators in the Region. Because the ridges surrounding the eyes look like wearing glasses, the Japanese name of the spectacled caiman mean "glasses". The body length reaches about 2.5m. Because artificial breeding of spectacled caiman is relatively easy, the species has been maintained in many zoos, and the reproduction is also being successful. Furthermore many individuals are maintained as a pet. After the Great East Japan Earthquake of March 11, 2011, because the situation of the electric power supply was tight, the planned power outage was carried out in many areas of the Kanto District. It is recorded that the power outage caused a great influence not only on the civic life and industrial activities, but also on the animal maintenance and breeding sites. In zoos and aquaria, they could not sufficiently obtain the power and the artificial breeding environment could not be easily maintained. Because they could not use the freezer for temporarily storing dead individuals, some dead bodies were burned and buried in the ground. This skull specimen was prepared from an unearthed dead body in Atagawa Tropical and Alligator Garden of Shizuoka Prefecture. This specimen is the skull of a subadult individual which was born in this garden, and it has been used to morphologically examine the growth pattern of the crocodile skeleton. This is a valuable research material of zoology. In addition, it also has role to tell us the impact of accidental natural disasters on the academic, education and culture. (Hideki Endo & Mayu Kusumi)