Main Characteristics Of Orders Flashcards
Characteristics of Amphibians
Scale-less skin
Permeability of skin to water skin-site for gas exchange
Water evaporated rapidly from skin (activity restricted to night)
Don’t drink water (water absorbed from soil and aquatic environments)
Occur primarily in moist environments
Characteristic of Reptiles
3-chambered heart (except crocodilians)
Tough scaly skin
Internal fertilization
Amniotic eggs
Water-conserving kidneys
Main Characteristics of Gymnophiona
Elongated, legless, burrowing and aquatic
Spends entire life underground or in water
Frequent tropical habitats
Main Characteristics of Testudinia
Shell - carapace and plastron
Aquatic and terrestrial
Aquatic species - webbed feet and flat shells
Terrestrial species - domed shell
Main Characteristics of Caudata
Most have 4 legs (limbs of some aquatic forms reduced)
2 contrasting lifestyles - either terrestrial or aquatic:
Terrestrial
• Plethodontid salamanders lack lungs (gas exchange through skin)
•Eggs laid on land (embryonic development inside egg)
•Hyoid apparatus - prey capture
Aquatic
• Paedomorphosis- adults are aquatic and retain larval characteristics (external gills), lateral line system, no eyelids, absence of adult tooth patterns
Main Characteristics of Anura
Ecologically most diverse
Absence of tail
Short body, large head, 4 well-developed limbs
Variety of reproductive modes (tadpole larvae, direct development from eggs, live birth)
Main Characteristics Rynchocephalia (Tuatara)
1 speices
Live on islands off coast of New Zealand
Look like lizards but resemble amphibian s - brain and method of walking
Long-lived, low reproductive rates
Nocturnal
Endangered
Main Characteristic Squamata
Largest group
Snakes- specialized lizards
Leglessness evolved several times
Majority are terrestrial, some aquatic
Main Charateristics of Crocodylia
25 species, many threatened or endangered
Provide extensive parental care
