Egyptian plover to feed on decaying meat lodged between the crocodiles' teeth. The identification of the trochilus with any particular plover is doubtful, as is the cleaning symbiosis itself; no known photographic evidence exists, and the written accounts are considered suspect by the biologist Thomas Howell. Egyptian plover The Egyptian plover ("Pluvianus aegyptius"), also known as the crocodile bird, is a wader, the only member of the genus "Pluvianus". Formerly placed in the pratincole and courser family, Glareolidae, it is now regarded as the sole member of its own monotypic family Pluvianidae. The species is one of several plovers doubtfully associated with
Symbiotic binary binaries show brightness changes and are classified as variable stars. The star Z Andromedae is often considered the prototype of the symbiotic binary class of stars. More commonly it is considered as the prototype of only a subset of symbiotic stars with irregular variations up to about 4 magnitudes in amplitude. Even the Z Andromedae variable stars are thought to be an inhomogeneous group. The so-called symbiotic novae are a closely related class of symbiotic binaries, more formally known as type NC novae. They appear similar to classical novae but have extremely slow outbursts that can remain near maximum brightness