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Reptile scale. Reptile skin is covered with scutes or scales which, along with many other characteristics, distinguish reptiles from animals of other classes. They are made of alpha and beta-keratin and are formed from the epidermis (contrary to fish, in which the scales are formed from the dermis). The scales may be ossified or tubercular, as ...
Elaborately shaped scales on the head of a Vine snake, Ahaetulla nasuta. Scales of a black-tailed rattlesnake (Crotalus molossus). Snakes, like other reptiles, have skin covered in scales. [1] Snakes are entirely covered with scales or scutes of various shapes and sizes, known as snakeskin as a whole. A scale protects the body of the snake ...
Most snakes have extra broad scales on the belly, each scale covering the belly from side to side. The scales of all reptiles have an epidermal component (what one sees on the surface), but many reptiles, such as crocodilians and turtles, have osteoderms underlying the epidermal scale. Such scales are more properly termed scutes. Snakes ...
Squamata (/ skwæˈmeɪtə /, 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. Squamates are distinguished by their skins, which bear horny scales or shields, and ...
Snakes are elongated, limbless reptiles of the suborder Serpentes (/ sɜːrˈpɛntiːz /). [ 2 ] Like all other squamates, snakes are ectothermic, amniote vertebrates covered in overlapping scales. Many species of snakes have skulls with several more joints than their lizard ancestors, enabling them to swallow prey much larger than their heads ...
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 ...
Keeled scales. Keeled scales refer to reptile scales that, rather than being smooth, have a ridge down the center that may or may not extend to the tip of the scale, [ 1 ] making them rough to the touch. According to Street's (1979) description of European lizards and snakes, in those that have keeled scales the keels are usually stronger in ...
A fossil of Casineria, which may have been the earliest amniote. Reptiles arose about 320 million years ago [ 1 ] during the Carboniferous period. Reptiles, in the traditional sense of the term, are defined as animals that have scales or scutes, lay land-based hard-shelled eggs, and possess ectothermic metabolisms.