1. What is a reptile?

Abstract

There are close to 10,000 different species of reptiles, with five different kinds of living animals making up the Class Reptilia: chelonians (turtles and tortoises); lizards; snakes; crocodilians; and the tuatara of New Zealand. ‘What is a reptile?’ explains that despite their huge range of body forms and ways of life, zoologists recognize them all as reptiles because of the fundamental characters that they all share, including dry and scaly skin, the ability to excrete urine waste as a solid, and the reproductive process of laying amniotic eggs on dry land. The evolutionary adaptations for moving to life on dry land, which began about 320 million years ago, are explained.