Who are reptiles? Detailed answer

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Who are reptiles? Detailed answer

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Who are reptiles?

As a rule, with the word "reptile" an ordinary person recalls a snake. But in fact, this group of animals includes many other crawling creatures. In the animal kingdom, reptiles rank between amphibians and birds. Amphibians are animals that can live both on land and in water.

Scientists believe that birds evolved from reptiles several million years ago. In those days, reptiles were the main group of animals and were often gigantic in size. But these huge reptiles have died out, and the reptiles of our days are relatively small in size. The largest of them are crocodiles and pythons.

In many ways, reptiles are similar to amphibians. They are all cold-blooded, crawling and have spines. Their main distinguishing features are lungs and skin. Amphibians breathe with gills at a young age, and only later do many of them develop lungs. Reptiles, on the other hand, breathe only with their lungs all their lives.

In amphibians, the skin is smooth and sticky, kept moist by special mucous glands. Water easily penetrates their skin, which is why most amphibians dry out and die if taken out of the water for a long time. Reptiles do not have mucous glands, and their skin is dry and scaly. Since water cannot penetrate their skin, they can live permanently on land. Reptiles are divided into four main groups: turtles, crocodiles, lizards and snakes, as well as a strange lizard-like tuatara from New Zealand.

Turtles differ from other reptiles in that their body is surrounded by a bone shell. All turtles lay eggs. Some turtles live near or in bodies of water, while others live exclusively on land. Alligators, crocodiles and the like have an elongated body with four limbs, covered with scales or plates. Alligators and crocodiles are so similar that only a specialist can tell them apart.

However, in the United States, alligators have a shorter and wider snout than crocodiles. In Australia there are crocodiles and no alligators at all, but a lot of lizards.

Lizards and snakes are reptiles of the highest order. The main difference between lizards and snakes is the structure of the jaws. In snakes, both the upper and lower jaws have movable parts with sharp, inwardly curved teeth.

Author: Likum A.

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