Reptile

This article is about the animal class. For other uses, see Reptile (disambiguation).

Reptiles
Temporal range: Late Carboniferous–Present[1]
Tuatara
Saltwater crocodile
Common box turtle
Ladder snake
Scientific classification Edit this classification
Domain: Eukaryota
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Clade: Sauropsida
Class: Reptilia
Laurenti, 1768
Extant groups

See text for extinct groups.

Reptiles, as commonly defined, are a group of tetrapods with an ectothermic ('cold-blooded') metabolism and amniotic development. Living reptiles comprise four orders: Testudines (turtles), Crocodilia (crocodilians), Squamata (lizards and snakes), and Rhynchocephalia (the tuatara). As of May 2023, about 12,000 living species of reptiles are listed in the Reptile Database.[2] The study of the traditional reptile orders, customarily in combination with the study of modern amphibians, is called herpetology.

Reptiles have been subject to several conflicting taxonomic definitions.[3] In Linnaean taxonomy, reptiles are gathered together under the class Reptilia (/rɛpˈtɪliə/ rep-TIL-ee-ə), which corresponds to common usage. Modern cladistic taxonomy regards that group as paraphyletic, since genetic and paleontological evidence has determined that birds (class Aves), as members of Dinosauria, are more closely related to living crocodilians than to other reptiles, and are thus nested among reptiles from an evolutionary perspective. Many cladistic systems therefore redefine Reptilia as a clade (monophyletic group) including birds, though the precise definition of this clade varies between authors.[4][3] Others prioritize the clade Sauropsida, which typically refers to all amniotes more closely related to modern reptiles than to mammals.[4]

The earliest known proto-reptiles originated from the Carboniferous period, having evolved from advanced reptiliomorph tetrapods which became increasingly adapted to life on dry land. The earliest known eureptile ("true reptile") was Hylonomus, a small and superficially lizard-like animal which lived in Nova Scotia during the Bashkirian age of the Late Carboniferous, around 318 million years ago.[1] Genetic and fossil data argues that the two largest lineages of reptiles, Archosauromorpha (crocodilians, birds, and kin) and Lepidosauromorpha (lizards, and kin), diverged during the Permian period.[5] In addition to the living reptiles, there are many diverse groups that are now extinct, in some cases due to mass extinction events. In particular, the Cretaceous–Paleogene extinction event wiped out the pterosaurs, plesiosaurs, and all non-avian dinosaurs alongside many species of crocodyliforms and squamates (e.g., mosasaurs). Modern non-bird reptiles inhabit all the continents except Antarctica.

Reptiles are tetrapod vertebrates, creatures that either have four limbs or, like snakes, are descended from four-limbed ancestors. Unlike amphibians, reptiles do not have an aquatic larval stage. Most reptiles are oviparous, although several species of squamates are viviparous, as were some extinct aquatic clades[6]  – the fetus develops within the mother, using a (non-mammalian) placenta rather than contained in an eggshell. As amniotes, reptile eggs are surrounded by membranes for protection and transport, which adapt them to reproduction on dry land. Many of the viviparous species feed their fetuses through various forms of placenta analogous to those of mammals, with some providing initial care for their hatchlings. Extant reptiles range in size from a tiny gecko, Sphaerodactylus ariasae, which can grow up to 17 mm (0.7 in) to the saltwater crocodile, Crocodylus porosus, which can reach over 6 m (19.7 ft) in length and weigh over 1,000 kg (2,200 lb).

  1. ^ a b Marjanović, D. (2021). "The Making of Calibration Sausage Exemplified by Recalibrating the Transcriptomic Timetree of Jawed Vertebrates". Frontiers in Genetics. 12. 521693. doi:10.3389/fgene.2021.521693. PMC 8149952. PMID 34054911.
  2. ^ "Reptile Database News". reptile-database.org. Retrieved 2022-05-25.
  3. ^ a b Cite error: The named reference modestoanderson2004 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  4. ^ a b Cite error: The named reference Gauthier-1994-Prothero-Schoch was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  5. ^ Ezcurra, M.D.; Scheyer, T.M.; Butler, R.J. (2014). "The origin and early evolution of Sauria: Reassessing the Permian saurian fossil record and the timing of the crocodile-lizard divergence". PLOS ONE. 9 (2): e89165. Bibcode:2014PLoSO...989165E. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0089165. PMC 3937355. PMID 24586565.
  6. ^ Sander, P. Martin (2012). "Reproduction in early amniotes". Science. 337 (6096): 806–808. Bibcode:2012Sci...337..806S. doi:10.1126/science.1224301. PMID 22904001. S2CID 7041966.