Reptiles
If they bite you and you die, they are ‘venomous’; if you bite them and you die, they are ‘poisonous’
Animals belonging to the Class Reptiles have three main characteristics in common – they are ectothermic (cold-blooded), they have skin covered with tough scales, and they all lay eggs.
Externally, reptiles show remarkable variation in appearance. Like snakes, they may be long, slender, and limbless or short and hard-shelled like turtles.
As they depend on external factors to control their temperatures, reptiles bask in the run to increase body temperatures and may hibernate during winters in temperate regions. Most reptiles periodically shed their skins to make space for them to grow, although some shed their skin as a whole (e.g., snakes) and others in patches (e.g., crocodiles). Some reptiles possess senses not seen anywhere else in the animal kingdom, like the light-sensitive ‘third eye’ in lizards which measures day length to control seasonal activity patterns.
Orders in this class
Scaled reptiles, lizard and snakes, survived the Dinosaurs extinction – but will they survive humans?
Famous for being slow, members of this order have evolved very little since they first appeared 200 million years ago
Crocodilians, the fearsome-looking living-fossils can be extremely gentle with their young when lining them up in their mouths
These New Zealand-ers can live to over 100 years old with their eggs taking at least a year to hatch!
