Reptile | Definition, Characteristics, Examples, & Facts | Britannica
Oct 25, 2024 · A reptile is any member of the class Reptilia, the group of air-breathing vertebrates that have internal fertilization, amniotic development, and epidermal scales covering part or all of their body. The major groups of living reptiles are turtles, tuatara, lizards, snakes, and crocodiles.
reptile - Kids | Britannica Kids | Homework Help
A reptile is an air-breathing animal that has scales instead of hair or feathers. Reptiles have lived on Earth for more than 280 million years. Scientists consider them to be the ancestors of birds and mammals. Over the years many kinds of reptiles have become extinct, or died out.
Lizard | Definition, Types, Characteristics, Classification, & Facts ...
Oct 24, 2024 · lizard, (suborder Sauria), any of more than 5,500 species of reptiles belonging in the order Squamata (which also includes snakes, suborder Serpentes). Lizards are scaly-skinned reptiles that are usually distinguished from snakes by the possession of legs, movable eyelids, and external ear openings.
Turtle | Species, Classification, & Facts | Britannica
Nov 12, 2024 · turtle, (order Testudines), any reptile with a body encased in a bony shell, including tortoises. Although numerous animals, from invertebrates to mammals, have evolved shells, none has an architecture like that of turtles.
Reptiles Portal | Britannica
Turtles, tuatara, lizards and snakes, and crocodiles make up the major groups of living reptiles today, and they collectively account for over 8,700 species. Plesiosaurs, pliosaurs, ichthyosaurs, and dinosaurs...
Characteristics and features of reptiles | Britannica
reptile, Any of the approximately 8,700 species of the class Reptilia, the group of air-breathing vertebrates that have internal fertilization and a scaly body and are cold-blooded. Most species have short legs (or none) and long tails, and most lay eggs.
Reptile - Evolution, Paleontology, Adaptation | Britannica
Oct 25, 2024 · Reptile - Evolution, Paleontology, Adaptation: The first land vertebrates, the Tetrapoda, appeared near the middle of the Devonian Period. The earliest known reptiles, Hylonomus and Paleothyris, date from the Late Carboniferous. The Mesozoic Era is known as the “Age of Reptiles.”
Snake | Description, Facts, & Types | Britannica
Oct 28, 2024 · snake, (suborder Serpentes), any of more than 3,400 species of reptiles distinguished by their limbless condition and greatly elongated body and tail. Classified with lizards in the order Squamata, snakes represent a lizard that, over the course of evolution , has undergone structural reduction, simplification, and loss as well as specialization.
Reptile - Amphibians, Turtles, Lizards | Britannica
Oct 25, 2024 · Aquatic or amphibious reptiles with robust body and tail, short sturdy limbs, a strong flattened and elongate skull with nostrils at tip of snout, and a well-developed secondary palate. Living species 1.5 to about 7 metres (5 to 23 feet) in total length; some extinct species grew to 15 metres (49 feet) long.
Crocodile | Habitat, Species, Diet, & Facts | Britannica
Oct 30, 2024 · Crocodiles are any of about 27 species of generally large, ponderous, amphibious animals of lizard-like appearance and carnivorous habit belonging to the reptile order Crocodylia. They have powerful jaws, many conical teeth, and short legs.