Reptiles
Introduction:
Reptiles are cold-blooded vertebrates that rely on the environment to control their temperature resulting in the development of many specialist features and behaviours to utilise the heat of their surroundings. They are often found in every kind of habitat, including grasslands, swamps, forests, deserts, oceans, and other arid environments. Although the majority of reptiles, including aquatic ones, lay eggs on land.
Key features of reptiles:
Cold blooded (ectothermy)
Dry skin covered in scales or bony plates
Egg-laying
Air- breathing
Other characteristics include leathery and soft eggshells, reduced or entirely removed glands, four limbs which project to the side (aside from snakes and slowworms) and the shedding of their skin throughout their lifetime.
The reptiles can be found in central cabinet 5 with the amphibians
Classification
Reptile classification is relatively complicated and ever-changing as scientific advancement takes place and the groups' evolutionary history is further studied. Their grouping has changed repeatedly due to varying degrees of relatedness between different orders of reptiles and birds, with some taxonomists regarding birds as a part of the reptile group. The position of turtles in particular has undergone significant variance as molecular work reveals more about their closest relatives. For the sake of simplicity and clear separation between animal groups we have decided to keep the bird and reptiles groups distinct.
Reptiles can be divided into 4 groups based on their physical and genetic features:
Chelonia
(Turtles)
(Turtles)
Keratinized plates forming a beak instead of teeth, shell surrounding body, flexible neck
Rhynchocephalia
(Tuatara)
(Tuatara)
Spiny scales, nocturnal, live in burrows, only found in New Zealand
Squamata
(Lizards and snakes)
(Lizards and snakes)
Most diverse group of reptiles, modified skull to aid jaw flexibility allowing for it to expand
Crocodilia
(Crocodilians)
(Crocodilians)
Elongated skull, powerful jaw muscles, teeth in sockets, semi-aquatic
Reptile Orders
Below is a list of the reptilian orders from the most recent review - these are the same categories as above.
If you want to discover more, all groups or specific animals are hyperlinked to their respective page on Encyclopaedia Britannica
We have specimens from every order of amphibian in our museum which can be found in the 5th central cabinet, alongside the amphibians.
Chelonia OR Testudines - Turtles, tortoises and terrapins
Rhynchocephalia - Tuatara
Crocodilia - crocodiles, gharials, alligators and caiman
Explore the different taxonomic groups of Reptiles using this interactive phylogenetic tree from OneZoom.
Learn more about OneZoom here ** reptiles split into sauropsids (repitles and birds) and anapsids (turtles)
Highlights
The museum includes examples from all the living reptile groups and fossils from extinct reptiles. Some highlights of our collection are:
Skulls from the green sea turtle Chelonia mydas, one of the largest species of turtle weighing around 65-130kg
Preserved late stage embryo of a sea turtle with limbs formed, shell mostly developed, yolk still present.
Skeletons of various lizards and snakes
Taxidermy Giant Zonure from the Smaug genus of spiny southern African lizards named after the dragon J.R.R. Tolkien's The Hobbit.
