what determines an alligator's sex?
In most animals, offspring genders are determined by sex chromosomes at the time of conception. But alligators and other crocodilian species, as well as some turtles and lizards, do not have sex chromosomes. Instead, the sex of the young is determined by the temperature at which the eggs incubate during a critical period of development. Alligators American alligators live in freshwater environments like marshes, wetlands, swamps, ponds and rivers. They range west from Florida to southern Texas and north to parts of the Carolinas. Alligators have broad snouts and are predators of fish, turtles, other reptiles, birds and small mammals.