Who will not have chills down the spine when they meet with a reptile all of a sudden? Their appearance, movement and venom make them dangerous and at times nightmarish. However, they are like any other animal with some astonishing characteristics.
Reptiles have a backbone like us but they crawl or swim along, as they do not have legs or feet. Like fish, they have scales, breathe air and lay eggs with shells. They are cold-blooded; and therefore, they depend on outside sources for body heat. Although sixteen orders of reptiles have lived on the face of the earth so far, only four orders survive today.
Among the reptiles that exist today, the largest group is the Squamata. These reptiles comprise lizards and snakes. There are 5700 living species in the Squamata group. On the other hand, there are only 200 species of turtles and 23 species of crocodilians. The smallest of the four groups has only a single species – the tuatara. The tuataras live on a group of remote islands off the New Zealand coast. Do you know the only continent in the world that does not house reptiles? Antarctica!
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