What is a reptile ?

 Reptiles are creatures with many interesting features. Like us, they have a backbone but they crawl or swim along. They have scales , breathe air and lay eggs with shells. They are cold blooded - they depend on outside sources for body heat.

 Sixteen groups of reptiles have lived on the face of the Earth. Only four groups survive today.

 The largest group is the SQUAMATA .  Squamata includes Lizards and Snakes . There are 5700 living species in the Squamata Group.

lizard

snake

 

The second group is the CROCODILIANS , Which includes crocodiles , alligators , and caimans, They are the largest of the reptiles.

caimans

crocodile

 Tortoises and Turtles from the third group, which has about 294 species. They are the oldest of all living reptiles. They first appeared about 200 million years ago. Their most distinctive feature is the hard shell that encloses the soft parts of their body, providing protection from predators.

Turtle

Tortoise

 The smallest of the four groups has only one kind of animal - THE TUATARA . The tuataras live on a group of remote island off the New Zealand coast. They look similar to lizards.

Tuataras

 Reptiles are found on every continent except Antarctica.

                    pictures source : Google image ; “no copyright infringement is intended”