Reptile

Cosma / Communication / Knowledge / Realm / Terrestrial / Life / Animal / Vertebrate / Reptile
—————————

reptile : any of a class (Reptilia) of cold-blooded, air-breathing, usually egg-laying vertebrates that include the alligators and crocodiles, lizards, snakes, turtles, and extinct related forms (such as dinosaurs and pterosaurs) and that have a body typically covered with scales or bony plates and a bony skeleton with a single occipital condyle, a distinct quadrate bone usually immovably articulated with the skull, and ribs attached to the sternum — Merriam-Webster See also OneLook

Thesaurus

Roget’s II (Thesaurus.com), Merriam-Webster Thesaurus, Visuwords

Encyclopedia

Reptiles, as most commonly defined are the animals in the class Reptilia, a grouping comprising all sauropsids except birds. Living reptiles comprise turtles, crocodilians, squamates (lizards and snakes) and rhynchocephalians (tuatara). In the traditional Linnaean classification system, birds are considered a separate class to reptiles. However, crocodilians are more closely related to birds than they are to other living reptiles, and so modern cladistic classification systems include birds within Reptilia, redefining the term as a clade. Other cladistic definitions abandon the term reptile altogether in favor of the clade Sauropsida, which refers to all amniotes more closely related to modern reptiles than to mammals. — Wikipedia

Reptile (Encyclopædia Britannica)

Reptiles (SeaWorld Parks & Entertainment)

Turtles and Crocodilians (One Zoom)
Reptile (WolframAlpha)

———————–

Adventures

Explore related posts on Cosma …

Nutty Nature News - I’ve been updating the “nature” related pages on this site, so I’ve spent an abnormal amount of time perusing nature related sites for the last few weeks. Along the way I came across more than my fair share of odd nature stories. Many of them were viral, so you may have seen some of them … Continue reading Nutty Nature News

———————–

Inspiration

Talks about Reptiles (TED: Ideas Worth Spreading)

———————-

Innovation

Science

Herpetology is the branch of zoology concerned with the study of amphibians (including frogs, toads, salamanders, newts, and caecilians) and reptiles (including snakes, lizards, amphisbaenids, turtles, terrapins, tortoises, crocodilians, and the tuataras). Birds, which are cladistically included within Reptilia, are traditionally excluded here; the scientific study of birds is the subject of ornithology. Thus, the definition of herpetology can be more precisely stated as the study of ectothermic (cold-blooded) tetrapods. Under this definition “herps” (or sometimes “herptiles” or “herpetofauna”) exclude fish, but it is not uncommon for herpetological and ichthyological scientific societies to collaborate. — Wikipedia

Herpetology (Encyclopædia Britannica)

126 questions with answers in Herpetology (Research Gate)

————————–

Preservation

Museum

Reptiles (Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History)

Library

DDC: 597.9 Reptilia, Reptiles (Library Thing)
Subject: Reptiles (Library Thing)

Subject: Reptiles (Open Library)

LCC: QL 641 Reptiles (UPenn Online Books)
Subject: Reptiles (UPenn Online Books)

LCC: QL 641 Reptiles (Library of Congress)
Subject: Reptiles (Library of Congress)

Subject: Reptiles (WorldCat)

—————————

Participation

Education

Reptiles (San Diego Zoo Wildlife Explorers)
Reptiles (Biology4Kids)

MERLOT: Multimedia Educational Resource for Learning and Online Teaching
OER Commons: Open Educational Resources

Community

More News …

Frogs and Reptiles News -- ScienceDaily Snakes, lizards, alligators, frogs and toads. From habitat information to frogs in stem cell research, you will find all the reptile and amphibian news here.

190-year-old DNA reveals a hidden pangolin species
on August 26, 2026 at 12:46 pm
DNA from a nearly 190-year-old museum specimen has helped scientists confirm a distinct Himalayan pangolin species hiding in plain sight in Nepal and northern India. The discovery could give conservationists a powerful new way to trace illegally traded pangolin scales back to the species and regions being targeted by poachers.
Scientists discover a real-life “dragon” and...
on August 24, 2026 at 3:11 am
Scientists discovered a small, yellowish mountain horned dragon in Thailand and named it Acanthosaura syrax after a dragon from House of the Dragon. Found only in a narrow band of high-elevation forest, the distinctive new species could become a flagship for protecting its rare mountain habitat.
A new Ice Age species was hiding in la brea tar...
on August 16, 2026 at 7:33 am
Scientists have discovered a new extinct amphibian species hiding in the fossil collections of Los Angeles’ La Brea Tar Pits. Named Spea labreae, the Ice Age spadefoot toad is an exceptionally rare find—only one other extinct Pleistocene amphibian has ever been identified in North America. Its bones had been sitting in collections since the 1950s before a researcher noticed features that set it apart from known species.

Phys.org - latest science and technology news stories Phys.org internet news portal provides the latest news on science including: Physics, Nanotechnology, Life Sciences, Space Science, Earth Science, Environment, Health and Medicine.

XY or ZW? Gecko chromosomes reveal evolution's...
on August 27, 2026 at 6:00 pm
Why do humans rely on XY chromosomes to determine sex, while birds use ZW—and many reptiles use neither, letting temperature decide instead? Sex determination is remarkably diverse across the animal kingdom. In genotypic sex determination (GSD), sex is encoded in the genome: XX individuals are female and XY males in humans and most mammals, while in the ZW system, found in birds and some reptiles, males are ZZ and females ZW.
Two decades of fieldwork produce the first...
on August 27, 2026 at 12:20 pm
A researcher from the University of North Carolina Asheville has published the first comprehensive checklist of the native terrestrial reptiles of the Turks and Caicos Islands (TCI), drawing on 20 years of collaborative fieldwork to create a single illustrated reference for scientists, conservationists and nature enthusiasts.
Species discoveries reveal emerging biodiversity...
on August 27, 2026 at 12:20 pm
We share our planet with millions of plants and animals. This variety of life is known as biodiversity, a term encompassing everything from microscopic genes to entire ecosystems, such as deserts and vibrant coral reefs.