Edward Avery McIlhenny in 1916 claimed this american alligator skin was 18ft long and it seems the scale shows this, but a question arose in my mind, is the scale accurate could its markers be shorter to make it appear bigger? Like how 9 inch rulers are sometimes used and treated like 12 inch rulers to make things look larger than they actually are. There's no person to give some idea of how big it is so I'm asking if any of you could truly estimate its size (is it 18, more, or less). based on plants, house, and objects from the photo and to consider doing two different size estimates based on if the skin was streched or unstreched. I would be grateful to anyone who could attempt this.