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15.16: Introduction to Reptiles

  • Page ID
    44739
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    What you’ll learn to do: Identify characteristics of reptiles

    Reptiles are tetrapod animals in the class Reptilia. This class includes today’s turtles, crocodilians, snakes, amphisbaenians, lizards, tuatara, and their extinct relatives. The study of these traditional reptile orders, historically combined with that of modern amphibians, is called herpetology.

    In more recent years, scientists have discovered that some reptiles are more closely related to birds than they are to other reptiles (e.g., crocodiles are more closely related to birds than they are to lizards). For this reason, many modern scientists prefer to consider the birds part of Reptilia as well. In this course, we will study them separately.

    Contributors and Attributions

    CC licensed content, Original
    • Introduction to Reptiles. Authored by: Shelli Carter and Lumen Learning. Provided by: Lumen Learning. License: CC BY: Attribution
    CC licensed content, Shared previously

    15.16: Introduction to Reptiles is shared under a not declared license and was authored, remixed, and/or curated by LibreTexts.

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