LEC 7: Reptiles Flashcards
Characteristic Features [10]
- they are terrestrial. body is covered in scales
- Skin is dry, rough and has no glands
- Body division - head, tail, body and neck.
- Most have 4 limbs w claws except snakes
- Exotherms
- Have lungs for respiration.
- 3 chambered hearts except crocodiles =4
- Are uricotelic
- internal fert
- development is direct. no larval stage.
How many subclasses are there?
3.
What are the subclasses
Anapsida
Synapsida
Diapsida
Animals in Anapsida?
Turtles, tortoises and terrapins
Features of Anapsids
Have no teeth
Their skulls have no temporal openings.
They are the most primitive amniotes
Regarded as the ancestral stock from which vertebrates evolved from.
Synapsid Features
They are extinct.
Skulls had an opening at the posterio-lateral roof of the skull behind each eye. These attached to the jaw muscles.
Animals in Diapsida
Crocodiles
Lizards
Chameleon
Dinosaurs
Features of Diapsids
They have two temporal openings behind each ear.
Tortoise Features [4]
They are terrestrial
Body is covered in bony shell
Vary in size = 1.2m long
Slow moving
Tortoise habitats
Deserts, arid grasslands, forests
Tortoise Feeding
Herbivores
Tortoise clutch size
20 eggs laid at night. they are left unattended.
Turtles Habitats
Some are terrestrial, others are fully aquatic and some are semi-aquatic in FW and MW.
Turtles Feeding
Aquatic ones = Carnivores
Terrestrial ones = Herbivores
Turtles Clutch size
10-100 eggs laid on land/shallow waters.
Most don’t take care of their eggs
Turtles Features
Bony shell with an upper domes carapace and lower flattened plastron.
Outer surface of shell is made of keratin
Crocodiles Feeding
Carnivores
Difference between crocs and alligators
Gators are less sensitive to cold.
Their teeth are less visible with their mouth closed
Crocodile Habitat
FW. Some = MW
Where are Crocodiles found?
Tropical Africa, Asia, the Americas and Australia
Composition of Lizard Skin
Overlapping keratinous scales that provide protection and reduce water loss
Lizard Eggs?
Most = Oviparous
Some = viviparous
Laid in nests
300 day gestation period
Chameleon feeding
Insectivores
Chameleon eggs
Oviparous and ovoviviparous
Clutch size varies = up to 30 live young.
Eggs are pressed into branches where they stick until they hatch.
Snake organs
The organs are paired. one in the front and one in the back. they are not side by side
Snake eggs
Ovoviviparous - some
