How does the saltwater crocodile see?

The saltwater crocodile (Crocodylus porosus) is a reptile in the order not recorded. Its eyes belong to the vision type Crocodilian waterline: horizontal visual streak, tapetum, no UV cone, eyes at the waterline.

Measured in this species: colour, foveas and night vision. Measured core: measured values on at least 3 of the 6 dials. Every value below carries its evidence level and sources; nothing is typed by hand.

Sample scene drawn in code: a face with red lips, a green shirt, red and green apples, flowers and a colour strip, as a person sees it. — The sample scene as a person sees it.

The same sample scene rendered by the See Like Animals engine for the saltwater crocodile's eyes, using the values in the table below. — The same scene rendered for the saltwater crocodile (60° field of view, daylight).

See your photo as the saltwater crocodileThis species is part of the full catalogue in the tool (full unlock). Your photo stays on your device.

What stands out

It has three colour receptor classes, like most people.
Activity pattern: nocturnal.

The six dials

Evidence levels: how the tiers work. "Measured" means a value measured in this species; "Estimated" values come from a close relative or an eye-size formula.

Vision values for the saltwater crocodile (Crocodylus porosus), catalogue-v1
Dial	Value	Evidence	Sources
Colour	Colour receptors 3 receptor classes: 424 nm (VS/SWS (violet)), 502 nm (MWS (green)), 546 nm (LWS (long)) species-v1.csv value measured in this species (not in tidy tables)	Measured (not re-verified)	^[1]
Sharpness	No value in the catalogue.
Field of view	No value in the catalogue.
Sharp zones (foveas)	Number of foveas 0 species-v1.csv text: horizontal visual streak	Measured (not re-verified)	^[1]
Sharp zones (foveas)	Fovea type visual streak	Measured (not re-verified)	^[1]
Night vision	Activity pattern nocturnal mode of 4 rows (of 4 rows): cathemeral; nocturnal	Measured (not re-verified)	^[2][3][4][5]
	Pupil shape vertical	Measured	^[3][4]
	Reflective layer (tapetum) yes	Measured (not re-verified)	^[6]
	Rods vs cones rod-dominated nocturnal -> rod-dominated; crepuscular / cathemeral / mixed -> mixed; diurnal -> cone-dominated	Derived	^[2][3][4][5]
Motion (flicker fusion)	No value in the catalogue.

Related animals

American alligator same vision type
Green anole same order ()
Panther chameleon same order ()
Red-eared slider same order ()
Tokay gecko same order ()
Western diamondback rattlesnake same order ()

More reptiles: all reptiles with measured vision data.

Sources

species_v1:Nagloo et al. 2016
Anderson SR, Wiens JJ. 2017. Out of the dark: 350 million years of conservatism and evolution in diel activity patterns in vertebrates. Evolution 71:1944-1959. Dryad doi:10.5061/dryad.fg700. doi.org/10.5061/dryad.fg700
Banks MS, Sprague WW, Schmoll J, Parnell JAQ, Love GD. 2015. Science Advances 1:e1500391. doi.org/10.1126/sciadv.1500391
Oskyrko O, Mi C, Meiri S, Du W. 2024. ReptTraits: a comprehensive dataset of ecological traits in reptiles. Scientific Data 11 (doi:10.1038/s41597-024-03079-5). Dataset v1-2 (includes Meiri 2018 lizard traits). doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare.24572683.v4
Moura et al. 2024. A phylogeny-informed characterisation of global tetrapod traits addresses data gaps and biases. PLoS Biol 22:e3002658. TetrapodTraits v3.0.1.. doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.22536349
species_v1:Standard textbook knowledge

Every value cites its sources (all sources). Data: catalogue-v1, built 2026-09-29. Accuracy notes: how accurate is this?