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 completely wiped out within 50 years. A new genetic study now shows that the crocodiles on the remote Seychelles islands did not belong to a separate species. Instead, they represented the westernmost population of the saltwater crocodile (Crocodylus porosus). The result confirms an earlier hypothesis that had been based solely on external characteristics.