Animals: Saltwater crocodiles crossed the Indian Ocean to reach the Seychelles

2026-02-05T13:47:54.000Z Saltwater crocodiles used to occupy a massive range that stretched across the Indian Ocean to the Seychelles, new DNA research confirms. The now-extinct population of crocodiles in the Seychelles, an archipelago in the western Indian Ocean, was not a group of Nile crocodiles (Crocodylus niloticus), nor was it a separate species. Instead, it was likely the westernmost population of saltwater crocodiles (Crocodylus porosus), which today live in India, Southeast Asia, Australia and Western Pacific