Reptiles, one the most widely spread animal group throughout the world. They can live almost everywhere because they adapt so well. Reptiles also come in a lot of shapes, sizes and colors. So let's explore the wonder of these scaly creatures. Even though there are so many differences between reptile species, there are a few things they all have in common. All reptiles are coldblooded, which is not quite right because there blood isn't cold. Coldblooded or poikilothermic actually means that the animals temperature must be regulated by external factors, that is why lizards are always sun bathing to get warm or in holes to cool off. All reptiles breathe using lungs. Reptiles have two lungs but some snakes only have one. Also a few others have one lung enlarged and the other one small. One other lung shape is a …show more content…
Turtles bodies are enclosed in a shell consisting of a dorsal carapace that is attached to there spine, and a ventral plastron. Turtles walking out of there shell is a bit of a misnomer since the spine is fused the shell. Both sea turtles and tortoises can be found almost everywhere in the world, but most live in warmer regions. Leatherback, hawksbill, and loggerhead are sea turtles which are any of two families Cheloniidae and Dermochelyidae defined by feet modified into paddles for swimming. Sea turtles, as the name implies, live in the sea; however, they swim to land to lay there eggs. When an egg hatches the baby turtle waddles across the sand to the sea where it will spend almost all of its life. A Tortoise is a Land dwelling reptile from the Chelonian family that has a large round shell, short feet, and sturdy legs. To keep a perfect temperature, tortoises perform something called estivation or a state of underground dormancy, primarily during summer. Tortoises are some of the longest living animal in the world, living on average over one-hundred and fifty years
The respiratory system is the system for taking in oxygen and giving off carbon dioxide in organisms. The respiratory systems of California sea lions, king cobras, and bald eagles have a few similarities and differences, but they all allow the intake of oxygen for each organism.
Oxygen breathing lungs are a universal trait of class reptilia. As such, it would have been necessary for the Plesiosauroid - a marine reptile, to return to the ocean surface to inhale air. Oxygen expenditure in reptiles is proportional to strenuosity of locomotion (Frappell, Schultz & Christian, 2002). Therefore the Plesiosauroid must have held physiological traits that enabled the species to avoid oxygen deficit while hunting deep-sea dwelling prey. This essay will outline the hypothesised respiratory, circulatory, pulmonary and sensory attributes of the Plesiosauroid as they relate to diving. These hypotheses will be supported by investigating the physiological adaptations of the Plesiosaur’s biological analogues, and the prospect of similar adaptations in the former will be speculated upon.
Throughout the animal kingdom, adaptations take place continuously and even the smallest of changes can leave a significant impact. Examples can be seen within any plant or animal. One example would include sea turtles, specifically, the Loggerhead Turtles. These turtles are native to the Indian, Atlantic, and Pacific Oceans as well as the Mediterranean Sea (Deurmit L 2007). They thrive in either temperate or tropical climates and can live in a myriad of biomes (Deurmit L 2007). These biomes include the pelagic, reef, coastal, and brackish water (Deurmit L 2007). Loggerhead turtles are omnivores and can eat anything from insects to aquatic crustaceans, to macro algae (Deurmit L 2007). According to Deurmit (2007) Caretta caretta is classified into Animalia Kingdom, Chordata Phylum, Vertebrata Subphylum, Reptilian Class, Testudines’ Order,
The Texas horned lizard, Phrynosoma cornutum, is a species in the lizard family, Phrynosomatidae, which has ten genera and a diverse group of over 125 different species (Hammerson 2007; Cossel Jr. 1997). Lizards in this family can be found in Mexico, Panama, most areas of the United States and parts of Canada (Heying 2003). Phrynosomatids range in a variety of forms, but are most commonly distinguished by their small size (less than 10 cm long), rough and keeled scales, spikes on their bodies, and the fusion of the sides of their teeth to the sides of their inner jawbones, known as pleurodont teeth (Heying 2003). The thirteen species in the horned lizard genus, Phrynosoma, can be identified more specifically by their flattened bodies (similar to a toad), small and coarse dorsal scales, camouflaged markings, and a short head with two horns pointing towards their backs (Oklahoma 1996). Of all the Phrynosoma horned lizards, the Texas horned lizard has the largest body and is the most widely dispersed species (Wikipedia 2007).
Nicholson KE, Harmon LJ, Losos JB. Evolution of Anolis Lizard Dewlap Diversity. PLOS ONE. 2007
By now, you have read on the Keenan Trial Blog, Chris Carver’s and Michael Bristow’s Autopsy in a MVC case.
The debate of whether dinosaurs were cold blooded or warm blooded has been ongoing since the beginning of the century. At the turn of the century scientists believed that dinosaurs had long limbs and were fairly slim, supporting the idea of a cold blooded reptile. Recently, however, the bone structure, number or predators to prey, and limb position have suggested a warm blooded species. In addition, the recent discovery of a fossilized dinosaur heart has supported the idea that dinosaurs were a warm blooded species. In this essay, I am going to give supporting evidence of dinosaurs being both warm and cold blooded. I will provide background information on the dinosaur that was discovered and what information it provides scientists.
For this play we would need a small tortoise species that can live with other tortoises, doesn’t mind being handled, and doesn’t require too much space. The Russian Tortoise is a popular pet and is the
Introduction Caretta caretta, otherwise known as the Loggerhead Sea Turtle, is an oceanic turtle that exist throughout the globe. They are circumtropical species (LeBlanc et al. 2014) meaning they are distributed throughout temperate and tropical ocean regions, but most abundant species are found in the United States coastal range. Loggerheads largest nesting aggregations in the Atlantic are found along the southeastern United States coastal range where about 80% of all nesting occurs and 90% of all hatchlings are produced (Abecassis et al. 2013).
Even more useful terms are Ectothermic or Endothermic, which suggest two different mechanisms of thermoregulation. Ectotherms generally obtain heat from their external surroundings. Their body temperature varies, corresponding at any time with the temperature of their external environment.
Fresh Water turtles are small, yet amazing creatures to have and care for in your home. River Cooters, Red Eared Sliders, and Painted turtles are all common pet’s found in America. Though turtles are fun to have around they do require special care just like any other pet would. In most cases they make great pets but turtles aren’t the easiest pets to have so depending on your lifestyle you should think about how much time you’re willing to put into a turtle. They are usually cheap to buy yet the equipment for your turtle can get expensive. Along with cost you must find the time to put into this pet. They need nice set ups to live in as well as attention and proper handling.
There are two kinds of species of alligators. There is the American alligator and the Chinese alligator. Many people have a hard time telling the difference between alligators and crocodiles. Alligators are related in the same family as the crocodile, but these two animals are very different. An alligator’s upper jaw overlaps the lower jaw. Alligators have a broad snout while crocodile have a very narrow snout. Alligators have much less aggressive and energetic than the crocodiles. Alligators live in tropical climates and crocodiles live in somewhat colder climates. Their kingdom is Animalia. Their Phylum is Chordata. They come from the class Reptilia. Their order is Crocodylia. Their family is Alligatoridae. Their genus is Alligator and their species is alligator messissipiensis and they are known as American alligators.
Proposals have been made to reclassify the pterosaurs, dinosaurs, and certain other groups out of the class Reptilia into one or more classes of their own. The class Reptilia is divided into 6 to 12 subclasses by different authorities. This includes living and extinct species. In addition, a number of these subclasses are completely extinct.
...gly supported and implicated by this experiment. While Bayesian inference puts turtles in a wide range, parsimony puts turtles more specifically near pareiasauromorphs. Also, in molecular scaffolding, a turtle-archosaur clade in the diapsid matrices is very evident, but highly unstable for Eunotosaurus. Eunotosaurus, though, remains with parareptiles in a majority of the scaffolding. This states that turtles could very well be considered parareptiles, while being sister groups to archosaurs. Further evidence should be done on other close relatives to these taxa, including the research of synamorphies to help support the evidence. The more experiments that are applied to studying the different ancestors and possible sisters of turtles, and even Eunotosaurus, could be what it takes to properly place turtles in the specific phylogeny and taxa that they belong to.