The Egyptians worship God symbollically in the crocodile, that being the only animal without a tongue, like the Divine Logos which standeth not in need of speech.

Furthermore, they (quadrupeds) all have the ordinary organs of sensation, including a tongue, with the exception of the Egyptian crocodile. (Hutchins 1989

The crocodile dwells in the Nile: It is a four-footed evil thing, as dangerous on land as in the River. It is the only land creature without a tongue and the only one that bites by pressing with its movable upper jaw. (Healy 1989)

Strange to relate, the crocodile has no tongue. If anyone has the opportunity of examining a dead specimen, just look down the throat, and all that is seen is a gaping cavern leading down into the stomach. The tongue is absent, and all that there is in its place is a small, yellow, fatty-looking object about the size of a large White Hart cherry.

The crocodile has a long, narrow head tapering to a point while the alligator's head is broad, almost rectangular in shape with a blunt snout.  It also has a tongue which the crocodile does not.

The crocodile does not have a tongue as such but there is an area of tissue at the back of their throats that is used as a valve to close off the passage of air, when submerging under water. I have tried to find out if this tissue is in fact called a "tongue" but to no avail. (Letter by Mark Craig)

Can you draw out Leviathan with a fishhook, or press down his tongue with a cord?

The crocodile, and not the lion, is the strongest predator of humans on land. Tanara (1978) says:

In fact these reptiles are the strongest man eaters of all the animals on the African continent.

The introduction of a non-existent mythical creature after a series of genuine ones would make nonsense of the theme. For example to the question "Can you draw out Leviathan with a fishhook?" an appropriate answer if Leviathan were mythical would be "No, but neither can you because it doesn't exist!"  The lesson of God's greater power and understanding is then lost!

What then do the smoke and sparks refer to?  Chapter 41 is describing the difficulty and danger of trying to kill or capture a large specimen. And it's describing it in poetry. Notice that every pair of lines (chapters 38-41) has the same or similar thought twice over. This is a form of poetry.  In poetry figures of speech are more concentrated than in everyday speech.

Lay hands on him; Think of the battle;
You will not do it again!

When he raises himself up the mighty are afraid,
at the crashing they are beside themselves. (41:25)

In his neck abides strength. (41:22)
Round about his teeth is terror. (41:14)

However, the accounts of fatal attacks by large Nile Crocodiles – 23 of 43 attacks investigated – indicate that these crocodiles were extremely dangerous and ferocious. There were instances where crocodiles, having seized their victim were repeatedly stabbed with spears, pelted with stones, or had sticks rammed down their gullets in order to prise the human victim from their jaws – but to no avail.  In these attacks few bodies or remains were retrieved. Considering that a large adult Nile Crocodile may weigh up to fourteen times that of an average human and can seize and drown Cape buffaloes as heavy as themselves a human being, out of his or her element in the water, has little chance of surviving such an attack. (p. 177)

Family  Crocodylidae –14 species including the Nile Crocodile (Crocodylus niloticus)
      "      Alligatoridae – 7 species
      "      Gavialidea    – 2 species.

There are four protected estuarine crocodiles at the Bhitarkanika Wildlife Sanctuary, Orissa State, eastern India which measure more than 6m l9ft 8in in length. The largest individual is over 7m 23 ft long. (p. 36)

An article in Prime Time magazine quoted the curator of reptiles at the Museum of Victoria:

At one stage in the United States people were buying tiny alligators as pets. Once they grew too large or because their owners were bored with them, they flushed them down toilets. Today there are large colonies of alligators roaming the sewers of many American cities.

So let's get back to that question now and find out the truth.
 
 

Chamber's Encyclopaedia (1908) says:

…the flat tongue is fixed to the floor of the mouth.

In the turtles and crocodiles the tongue lies in the floor of the mouth and is not protrusible.

Among the reptiles the Chelonia and Crocodilia possess a poorly manoeuvrable tongue.

In the crocodiles … There is a flap on the hind end of the tongue, which, with a fold of the palate, enables the mouth to be closed off from the respiratory passage and hence kept open under water.

In fact in the tortoises and turtles as in the crocodiles, the tongue is present… (Tanara 1978)

On the floor of the mouth is the thick, fleshy tongue, firmly attached and therefore immobile.
(The New Encyclopedia Britannica 1988)

A letter from Crocodile Farm in Northern Territory says:

Crocodiles and their relatives do have a tongue although it is unlike what we conventionally perceive to be a tongue in that "it is attached along its length to the lower jaws" (pp. 24 in G. Webb's "Crocodiles of Australia").  It doesn't look like a tongue but is functionally and presumably phylogenetically equivalent to tongues in other reptiles.

The nasal passages extend above the secondary palate, opening directly into the throat behind a valve formed by a fleshy fold at the back of the palate meeting with a similar fold on the tongue. This separates water from inspired air, allowing the crocodile to breathe submerged. (p. 47)

His heart is hard as a stone, hard as the nether millstone.

The Bible says

Claiming to be wise, they became fools, and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images resembling mortal man or birds or animals or reptiles. (Romans 1:23

Thus says the Lord God: I will destroy the idols, and put an end to the images,  in Memphis… (30:13)

The Lord … will famish all the gods of the earth, and to him shall bow down, each in its place, all the lands of the nations. (2:11)

In Job 40:8 God is alleged to have asked Job:

Will you even put me in the wrong?

Use their tongues to deceive. (Romans 3:13)

Craig, M Curator of Birds and Reptiles, Adelaide Zoo. Letter dated February 14, 1992

Evans, I H 1990  Brewer's Dictionary of Phrase and Fable 4th edition, Cassell Publishers, Britain,  p. 284
 
Healy, J P 1991  Pliny The Elder  Natural  History A  Selection, Penguin,  Britain,   pp. 81, 118, 129

Hutchins, R M (Ed.) 1952  Great Books of the Western World, 1989 Printing Vol. 2,  Encyclopaedia Britannica Inc., pp. 25, 109-110

Ihle, J E W et al  1927  Vergleichende Anatomie Der Wirbeltiere, Germany,  pp. 557, 567

Job  1952  The Bible RSV, Collins, Britain

Kingsley, J S  1912  Comparative Anatomy of Vertebrates, Britain,  p. 217

Pistorius, M  Omega  March/April 1986, pp. 62-69

Pitman, Captain C R S Crocodiles, In: Blackwood's Magazine No. 1302, April 1924, pp. 542-553

Riese, G Research Officer, Crocodile Farms, Darwin, Northern Territory. Letter dated March 3, 1992.

Ross, C A  (Consulting Editor)  1989  Crocodiles and  Alligators, Golden Press, Australia,  pp. 52-55, 140

Storer, D  1980  Encyclopedia of Amazing  But True Pacts, Signet, USA,  p.108

Tanara, M U 1975  The World of Amphibians and Reptiles, English edition 1978, A M Editore, Spain, pp. 139, 140, 144

The New Encyclopaedia Britannica 1998,  Volume 26  p. 768

The World News 1910 October 15

Young, J Z 1962  The Life of Vertebrates, Second Edition, Oxford, USA, pp. 418

Young R  1939  Anatytical Concordance of the Holy Bible 8th Edition, Lutterworth, Britain.