Class 12: Reptiles

Viviparous animals, with vertebra and cold blood; breathing incompletely by a lung, at least in their later life; with a smooth skin or one covered in scales or a bony shell.

Observations

In the reptiles some progress in the perfectioning of organic structures is very noticeable, if we compare these animals with the fish. For among them we find for the first time the lung, which we know is the most perfect respiratory organ, because it is the same as what is in man. But here it is only sketchy, and several reptiles do not even have one in the early part of their lives. In truth, they breathe only incompletely, for only a part of the blood is sent to the parts which go by the lung.

It is also among them that we see for the first time in a distinct way four limbs which are part of the design of vertebrate animals and which are appendages of (or depend upon) the skeleton.

Table of Reptiles

First ORDER: BATRACHIAN REPTILES

Heart with one auricle; bare skin; two or four legs; gills in the first stage of life; no coupling

Urodela

Siren Proteus

Triton Salamander

Anura

Tree-frog Frog

Pipa Toad

SECOND ORDER: OPHIDIAN REPTILES (SNAKES)

Heart with one auricle; elongated body, narrow and without limbs or fins; no eyelids

Homoderms

Coecilia Amphisboena Acrochordus

Ophisaurus Slow-worm Sea snake

Heteroderms

Crotalus Scytale Boa Erpeton

Erix Viper Coluber Platurus

THIRD ORDER: SAURIAN REPTILES

Heart with two auricles; scaly body furnished with four limbs; claws on the digits; teeth in the jaw bones.

Tereticauds

Calcides Scincus Gecko Anolis Dragon

Agama Lacerta Iguana Stellio Chamaeleon

Planicauds

Uroplates Tupinambis Basiliseus

Lophura Dracaena Crocodile

Fourth Order: Chelonian Reptiles

Heart with a double auricle; body equipped with a carapace and four limbs; no teeth in the jaw bones

Chelonia Chelys

Emys Tortoise