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The characteristic quivering abdomen caused by movement of tadpoles within a pregnant female Limnonectes larvaepartus.. Ovoviviparity, ovovivipary, ovivipary, or aplacental viviparity is a term used as a "bridging" form of reproduction between egg-laying oviparous and live-bearing viviparous reproduction.
"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]
The term ichthyopsida means fish-face or fish-like as opposed to the Sauropsida or lizard-face animals (reptiles and birds) and the mammals. [6] The group representing an evolutionary grade rather than a clade , the term anamniote is now used as an informal way of denoting the physical property of the group, rather than as a systematic unit.
After internal fertilization and the habit of laying eggs in terrestrial environments became a reproduction strategy amongst the amniote ancestors, the next major breakthrough appears to have involved a gradual replacement of the gelatinous coating covering the amphibian egg with a fibrous shell membrane. This allowed the egg to increase both ...
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]
Fertilization is the fusion of gametes to produce a new organism. In animals, the process involves a sperm fusing with an ovum, which eventually leads to the development of an embryo. Depending on the animal species, the process can occur within the body of the female in internal fertilization, or outside in the case of external fertilization.
The ZW sex-determination system is a chromosomal system that determines the sex of offspring in birds, some fish and crustaceans such as the giant river prawn, some insects (including butterflies and moths), the schistosome family of flatworms, and some reptiles, e.g. majority of snakes, lacertid lizards and monitors, including Komodo dragons.
The decline in amphibian and reptile populations has led to an awareness of the effects of pesticides on reptiles and amphibians. [177] 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. [ 177 ]