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The decline in amphibian and reptile populations has led to an awareness of the effects of pesticides on reptiles and amphibians. [176] In the past, the argument that amphibians or reptiles were more susceptible to any chemical contamination than any land aquatic vertebrate was not supported by research until recently. [ 176 ]
Most reptiles are diurnal animals. The vision is typically adapted to daylight conditions, with color vision and more advanced visual depth perception than in amphibians and most mammals. Reptiles usually have excellent vision, allowing them to detect shapes and motions at long distances. They often have poor vision in low-light conditions.
Unlike Benton, for example, Jacques Gauthier and colleagues forwarded a definition of Amniota in 1988 as "the most recent common ancestor of extant mammals and reptiles, and all its descendants". [26] As Gauthier makes use of a crown group definition, Amniota has a slightly different content than the biological amniotes as defined by an ...
While reptiles and amphibians can be quite similar externally, the French zoologist Pierre André Latreille recognized the large physiological differences at the beginning of the 19th century and split the herptiles into two classes, giving the four familiar classes of tetrapods: amphibians, reptiles, birds and mammals.
Animals including insects [210] and mammals [218] feature in mythology and religion. The scarab beetle was sacred in ancient Egypt , [ 219 ] and the cow is sacred in Hinduism . [ 220 ] Among other mammals, deer , [ 218 ] horses , [ 221 ] lions , [ 222 ] bats , [ 223 ] bears , [ 224 ] and wolves [ 225 ] are the subjects of myths and worship.
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 .
"Herp" is a vernacular term for non-avian reptiles and amphibians. It is derived from the archaic term "herpetile", with roots back to Linnaeus's classification of animals, in which he grouped reptiles and amphibians in the same class. There are over 6700 species of amphibians [9] and over 9000 species of reptiles. [10]
Some reptiles such as crocodilians, turtles, water snakes and marine iguanas. Waterbirds, especially penguins, waterfowls, storks and shorebirds. Some rodents such as beavers, muskrats and capybaras. Some insectivorous mammals such as desmans, water shrews and platypuses. Some carnivoran mammals, including seals, otter and polar bears.