Why love’s on the crocs

QUESTION Is it possible for an alligator and a crocodile to produce offspring?

Despite superficial physical similarities, the alligator and crocodile are very different species. the order Crocodylia split into the Alligatoridae and

Crocodylidae families between 93 and 100 million years ago.

in most other animal groups, such a split would have led to significantly different physical differences.

For example, camels, pigs, giraffes, hippos and whales are all members of the

Artiodactyla family and have a common ancestor that is 48 million years old.

though alligators and crocodiles share similarities, they are unable to breed.

the key way to tell the two species apart is the way their teeth fit together when they close their mouths.

Alligators have an overbite: the teeth of the upper jaw fit outside the lower jaw and only the teeth of the upper jaw are visible when the mouth is closed.

in crocodiles, the teeth interlock, so teeth from both the upper and lower jaw are visible when the mouth is closed.

Alligators do not have salt glands — an organ in the tongue for excreting excess salt — unlike their distant cousins, which means crocodiles are more tolerant of saline water. M. N. Wren, Brighton.

QUESTION Are there any pop hits about snow that aren’t Christmas songs?

KAte BUsH released an entire 2011 album on the theme, 50 Words For snow. None of the seven tracks — snowflake, Lake tahoe, Misty, Wild Man, snowed in At Wheeler street, 50 Words For snow and Among Angels — refer to Christmas.

the idea for the song 50 Words For snow came from the myth that the inuit have that many words for snow.

Bush decided to make up increasingly fantastical words and recruited stephen Fry to recite the 50 synonyms.

the 1944 song Baby, it’s Cold Outside, popularised by Dean Martin in 1959 and more recently tom Jones and Cerys Matthews, implies snow with references Make it snappy: Saltwater crocodile to a ‘blizzard’ and hands ‘just like ice’. it has become associated with Christmas, but the lyrics do not mention it.

F. Harvey, Bristol. tHere have been many hit records with snow in the title or lyrics that don’t reference Christmas, including that wellknown classic, Frosty the snowman.

there’s Amid the Falling snow by enya, First snow in Kokomo by Aretha Franklin, snow in san Anselmo by Van Morrison, Little Bit Of snow by Howard Jones, December snow by the Moody Blues, White As snow by U2 and snow Girl by Haircut 100.

the snows they Melts the soonest is a 19th century folk song covered by sting and Cara Dillon.

then there is Clear As the Driven snow by the Doobie Brothers, snow Queen by Carole King and When snowflakes Fall in the summer by the sultry- voiced Julie London.

Let it snow has been recorded by countless artists from Dean Martin to Kylie Minogue. it was a double A-side by the Carpenters with the First snowfall.

Another double-sided snow record was Olivia Newton- John’s every time it snows/Angels in the snow.

John Lennon and Yoko Ono pitched in with Listen, the snow is Falling. even Johnny rotten got in on the act with sand Castles in the snow with his band public image Ltd.

Country & Western singers love the snow. there’s snow in His Hair by Johnny Cash, snow in July by Garth Brooks and the Chet Atkins novelty i still Write Your Name in the snow. the aptly named Hank snow didn’t miss a trick with three albums, snow in Hawaii, Hits Covered By snow and snow in All seasons.

Finally, Don’t eat the Yellow snow is some good advice from Frank Zappa And the Mothers Of invention.

Danny Darcy, Reading, Berks.

QUESTION Was racing driver Tom Delaney still competing at the age of 95?

CYriL terence ‘tom’ Delaney had a lifelong love of motorsport and raced the same car, his beloved Lea-Francis Hyper, all his life.

His father, terry Delaney, was a pioneer of late 19th- century motor racing who competed in the famous paris-Madrid marathon of 1903.

He was agent for the French manufacturer Delaunay Belleville, but astutely realised that servicing cars was the way to make money.

He opened his first depot in Maida Vale, West London, in 1910. the following year he joined forces with swiss engineer Jean Gallay, whose company Gallay Limited designed and manufactured radiators for bi-planes, to form Delaney Gallay.

the company adapted the Gallay radiator for the rapidly expanding car and aircraft industries.

tom Delaney grew up around cars and often accompanied his father to Brooklands, the pre-war racing circuit in surrey. He made his Brooklands debut in the 1930 tourist trophy at the wheel of his Lea-Francis Hyper and was one of the first to gain a pilot’s licence there.

terry died in 1946 and tom took over Delaney Gallay Ltd. He expanded the business by supplying heating and cooling systems for aircraft and automobiles.

By the sixties, Delaney Gallay was a major concern with five factories employing 2,000 people.

After tom was bought out in 1967, he divided his time between investing in property, wintering in spain and racing or touring his Hyper.

His last race, at the age of 95, was at a VsCC meeting at silverstone in April 2006. He died four months later and was survived by five sons.

Matthew Bowers, Stowe, Bucks.

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