Chapter 18 Flashcards
What is a cold-blooded animal that has dry, tough skin covered by scales; breathes with lungs; and has a three- or four-chambered heart?
reptile
What type of animals regulate their temperature by external factors?
cold-blooded
What is the technical term for an animal whose body temperature varies with the temperate of its surroundings?
poikilotherm
What means giving birth through eggs that hatch within the mother’s body?
ovoviviparous
What two creatures form the largest order of reptiles?
lizards and snakes
What are elongated, four-legged reptiles with a tapered tail, and are the most numerous reptiles?
lizards
What regions are lizards typically found in?
tropical regions
What is the only true marine lizard?
marine iguanas of the Galapagos islands
What is the largest lizard?
Komodo dragon
What type of lizard family does the Komodo dragon belong to?
monitor lizard
What are legless vertebrates with long, cylindrical bodies covered with dry scales?
snakes
What is the movement in which a snake bends into a series of curves while keeping its body flat to the ground?
lateral undulation
What is the movement in which a snake alternately stretches and shortens segments of its body to creep forwards in a straight line?
rectilinear movement
What is the movement in which a snake moves the front part of its body forwards, coils it slightly to anchor it, and then pulls the back part forward?
concertina movement
What is the movement in which a snake supports its body with a few points of contact while throwing the rest of its body sideways?
sidewinding movement
What do snakes have instead of eyelids?
transparent scales
What are bones that loosely attach a snake’s lower jaw to the skull?
quadrate bones
What in a snake is the primary instrument for smelling?
tongue
What is the two tiny cavities in the roof of a snake’s mouth that contain odor-sensitive nerve endings?
Jacobson’s organ
What usual feature does the snake have that allows it to open its mouth unusually wide?
double-hinged jaws
What type of pupils do diurnal snakes have?
round pupils
What type of pupils do nocturnal snakes have?
slitted pupils
What happens when a snake is swallowing something so that the trachea does not become obstructed?
the trachea is forced forward over the tongue and out of its mouth
What are zoologists who study reptiles and amphibians?
herpetologists
What are any of the several, small, harmless, worm-like burrowing snakes?
blind snakes
What is a more familiar family of nonvenomous snakes that overcome their prey by constriction?
boid family
What are members of the boid family more commonly called?
constrictors
What is another family of constrictors that are distinguished from boids by being oviporous?
pythons
What is the largest group of all living snakes?
colubrids
What are hollow or grooved venom-injecting teeth?
fangs
What are venomous snakes that have immovable fangs in the front of the upper jaw?
elapids
What is the largest venomous snake?
king cobra
What is the family that contains the viper of the Old World and the pit vipers?
viperid family
What is a viperid that has a heat-sensitive pit organ on each side of its head?
pit viper
What is a poison which affects the nervous system?
neurotoxin
What is a poison which damages blood vessels and destroys red blood cells?
hemotoxin
What are antibodies that attach the toxin materials and neutralize their effects?
antitoxins
What is a reptile with a shell and toothless jaws?
turtle
What is the upper shell of a turtle?
carapace
What is the lower part of a turtle’s shell?
plastron
What are the sections of the inner layer of a turtle’s shell?
plates
What is the tough, horny center layer of a shell made of keratinized epidermal shell?
shields
What is a state of summer dormancy or limited activity that some turtles go into?
estivaion
Although turtles are toothless and thus cannot grind their food, what can they do?
chop their food with their sharp, powerful jaws
What are the turtle’s eardrums calleD?
tympanic membranes
What type of turtles have a flat, hardened carapace made of large keratin scales?
hard-shelled turtles
What is a group of large turtles that have strong, sharp-edged jaws?
snapping turtles
What is the largest freshwater turtle?
alligator snapping turtle
What type of turtles have a round, flaw carapace covered with flexible, leathery skin?
soft-shelled turtles
What are the largest living turtles?
marine turtles
What are land turtles with feet and claws suited for terrestrial life?
tortoises
What are large, thick-skinned, long-tailed aquatic reptiles?
crocodilians
What do all crocodilians have on their eyes to help them see underwater?
nictating membranes
What is a lizard-like reptile that inhabits a few rocky islands off the coast the New Zealand?
tuatara
What is the “third eye” of a tuatara?
partetial eye
What is the most famous of all extinct creatures that resemble modern-day reptiles?
dinosaurs
Which group of dinosaurs is characterized by powerful lower legs used for walking and smaller “arms” used for grasping?
theropods
Which group of dinosaurs were large herbivorous animals characterized by long necks and tall, column-like legs?
sauropods
Which group of dinosaurs is included the Triceratops?
ceratopsians
What were flying creatures characterized by long wings, large beaks, and fur-covered bodies?
pterosaurs
What are cold-blooded vertebrates that live in both land and water?
amphibians
What is the larval state of an anuran called?
tadpole
What are the three orders of living amphibians?
frogs and toad, salamanders, and caecilians
What type of diet best-describes a developing frog?
herbivore
What type of diet best describes a fully grown frog?
carnivore
What is the transformation of an immature form, such as a larva, into an adult?
metamorphosis
How many chambers do all amphibians have?
three
What are frogs and toads known collectively as?
anurans
What are branched pigment cells found in the skin of reptiles, amphibians, and fish?
chromatophores
What is the outer epidermal layer of anurans, which provide the skin with some protection against loss of water made of?
keratin
What type of frogs process an extremely potent neurotoxin?
poison-dart frog
What is the world’s largest anuran?
Goliath frog
Where do the majority of anurans return to for reproduction?
the water
What is the process in which a male frog clasps a female frog to help her expel her eggs?
amplexus
What nourishes the developing embryo of a frog?
yolk sac
How does a tadpole breath until it develops lungs?
gills
What are transparent inner eyelids that most frogs have?
nictitating membrane
What is one of the most prominent features of the oral cavity in a frog?
tongue
What are inflatable pouches of skin under the chin that are used to make loud sounds?
vocal sacs
What are the two teeth that extend from the roof of an anuran’s mouth?
vomerine teeth
What is a special membrane heat holds the pancreas in place between the stomach and the small instine?
mesentery
What does the respiratory system of an adult frog include?
the lungs, the mucous membrane lining the oral cavity, and the skin
What is respiration through the membranes lining the oral cavity?
buccal respiration
What is the exchange of oxygen and carbon dioxide through the skin?
cutaneous respiration
What are amphibians that superficially resemble lizards?
salamanders
What is a gelatinous sperm-containing structure deposited by a male salamander for fertilization?
spermatophore
What is a condition in which an animal retain larval characteristics even after becoming sexually mature?
pedomorphosis
What is the largst living amphibian?
Chinese giant salamander
What is an aquatic salamander common in the United States?
mudpuppy
What is an aquatic salamander common in Mexico and the southwestern United States?
axolotls
What is the term referring to the terrestrial juvenile forms of certain salamanders whose adult forms are called newts?
eft
What are worm-life burrowing amphibians?
caecilians
