Reptile Groups

Question 1

Reptiles

Answer 1

Thick-skinned tetrapods with amniotic eggs or internal development of young..

They include warm-blooded birds and other scaly, cold-blooded reptiles.

Question 2

Testudines

Answer 2

Turtles - Reptiles with bodies contained within upper and lower bony, boxlike shells.

There are aquatic, semi aquatic, and terrestrial species.

Question 3

Diapsids

Answer 3

All reptiles, other than turtles, including birds.

Body forms vary but are often elongated, with scaly or feathered coverings and, commonly, four limbs.

Question 4

Archosaurs

Answer 4

Reptiles with teeth sunk into sockets.

This group includes many extinct dinosaur groups, with birds and crocodilians being the only living archosaurs.

Question 5

Crocodilians

Answer 5

Elongated, limbed reptiles covered with thick leathery plates under which are bony plates on their top surface.

All are semiaquatic predators.

Question 6

Birds

Answer 6

Archosaurs with asymmetrical flight feathers (lost in some flightless bird species).

Many dinosaurs had feathers, but they were not flight feathers. More recently evolved birds — not including the primitive tinamous and artistes — have many more shared features, including a horny, toothless bill and a keeled breastbone.

Question 7

Lepidosaurs

Answer 7

Diapsids that shed their skin in large pieces or as a whole.

Question 8

Squamata

Answer 8

Lizards and Snakes

Scaly reptiles of many forms. Males have paired copulatory organs called hemipenes.

Question 9

Iguanas and relatives

Answer 9

Lizards that have 4 functional limbs and use their tongues to capture and grab food.

Question 10

Scleroglossans

Answer 10

Squamates that uses their jaws rather than their tongue to catch food, and their tongue for smelling.

This group includes all squamates except Iguanians.

Question 11

Autarchoglossans

Answer 11

Squamates with highly developed olfactory capabilities involving the tongue and a sensitive scent organ (Jacobson’s organ) in the roof of the mouth.

Question 12

Amguimorph Lizards

Answer 12

A diverse group of squamates. Many have bony plates (osteoderms) beneath their scales and some species lack legs.

Question 13

Varanoidea

Answer 13

Monitors and Relatives

Includes squamates with an excellent sense of smell, and well-developed teeth, upper jaw, and neck.

Most are efficient predators that use long tongues to track prey.

Question 14

Serpentes

Answer 14

Snakes

Elongated squamates with no limbs (although the skeletons of some snakes show evidence of hind limbs), no moveable eyelids, and no external ears.