India, Feb. 6 -- The range of the saltwater crocodile (Crocodylus porosus) once extended from the Seychelles archipelago in the Indian Ocean near the African mainland to Vanuatu in the South Pacific Ocean.

Researchers from the University of Potsdam, the Bavarian State Collections of Natural History (SNSB), the University of Bergen in Norway and the Natural History Museum of the Seychelles reached this conclusion after confirming that the crocodiles once found in the Seychelles were 'salties'.

"Accounts from early expeditions to the Seychelles more than 250 years ago described crocodiles as common along the coasts of the archipelago. But after the first settlers established a permanent presence in 1770, the Seychelles crocodiles were com...