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Lizards and snakes share a movable quadrate bone, distinguishing them from the rhynchocephalians, which have more rigid diapsid skulls. [5] Some lizards such as chameleons have prehensile tails, assisting them in climbing among vegetation. [6] As in other reptiles, the skin of lizards is covered in overlapping scales made of keratin. This ...
However, it is represented by only one living species: the tuatara (Sphenodon punctatus), a superficially lizard-like reptile native to New Zealand. [ 5 ] [ 6 ] Lepidosauria is a monophyletic group (i.e. a clade ), containing all descendants of the last common ancestor of squamates and rhynchocephalians. [ 7 ]
Reptiles, from Nouveau Larousse Illustré, 1897–1904, notice the inclusion of amphibians (below the crocodiles). In the 13th century, the category of reptile was recognized in Europe as consisting of a miscellany of egg-laying creatures, including "snakes, various fantastic monsters, lizards, assorted amphibians, and worms", as recorded by Beauvais in his Mirror of Nature. [7]
Sauropsida (Greek for "lizard faces") is a clade of amniotes, broadly equivalent to the class Reptilia, though typically used in a broader sense to also include extinct stem-group relatives of modern reptiles and birds (which, as theropod dinosaurs, are nested within reptiles as more closely related to crocodilians than to lizards or turtles). [2]
Herpetology (from Greek ἑρπετόν herpetón, meaning "reptile" or "creeping animal") is a branch of zoology concerned with the study of amphibians (including frogs, salamanders, and caecilians (Gymnophiona)) and reptiles (including snakes, lizards, turtles, crocodilians, and tuataras).
Squamata (/ s k w æ ˈ m eɪ t ə /, Latin squamatus, 'scaly, having scales') is the largest order of reptiles, comprising lizards and snakes.With over 12,162 species, [3] it is also the second-largest order of extant (living) vertebrates, after the perciform fish.
Reptiles are tetrapod animals in the class Reptilia, comprising today's turtles, crocodilians, snakes, amphisbaenians, lizards, tuatara, and their extinct relatives. The study of these traditional reptile orders , historically combined with that of modern amphibians , is called herpetology .
Lepidosauromorpha (in PhyloCode known as Pan-Lepidosauria [2] [3]) is a group of reptiles comprising all diapsids closer to lizards than to archosaurs (which include crocodiles and birds). The only living sub-group is the Lepidosauria , which contains two subdivisions, Squamata , which contains lizards and snakes , and Rhynchocephalia , the ...