• There are about 250 species of turtles, 25 species of crocodilians, 5,500 species of snakes, 3,000 species of lizards, 130 species of amphibians, and 2 species of rhynchocephalians.
• Most reptiles are carnivores, and eat whole prey or insects. Some reptiles (adult green iguanas, for example), are herbivores and eat green plants.
• It is thought that dinosaurs eventually evolved into birds. Many dinosaurs, if not most, were thought to be warm-blooded, and reptiles are cold-blooded.
• There are 8,240 species of reptiles in the world, inhabiting every continent except Antarctica.
• Hundreds of millions of years ago, amphibians became the first vertebrates to live on land.
• Reptiles and amphibians are cold-blooded, or "ectothermic," animals, which means that they depend on external sources, such as the sun, to maintain their body temperatures. Since they don't burn energy to heat internal "furnaces," reptiles eat 30 to 50 times less food than do birds and mammals (warm-blooded animals) of similar sizes.
• Some turtles and tortoises, including the Eastern box turtle, can live for more than a century.
• Only a few hundred of the world's 3,000 snakes are venomous. In the United States, only rattlesnakes, copperheads, cottonmouths, and coral snakes are poisonous. More Americans die each year from bee and wasp stings than from snake bites.
• One way to tell a frog and a toad apart: frogs have smooth, clammy skin, while toads have more dry, bumpy skin. Both frogs and toads lay their eggs in water, but toads spend more of their time on land than do frogs.
• Averaging ten to 12 feet in length, the king cobra is the largest venomous snake in the world. It is also the only known snake that builds a nest for egg incubation.
• Frogs can breathe not only with their lungs, but also through their skin. A frog's skin is thin and contains many mucous glands that keep it moist. Oxygen can be absorbed through this thin, damp skin.
• Depending upon the size of the meal, anacondas can go several months between meals.
• More than 75 percent of all toad and frog species in the world live in tropical rainforests.
• The emerald tree boa can strike a bird or small mammal in complete darkness. The pits along the lips of most boas and pythons, and the nostril-like cavities of pit vipers, are infrared heat receptors. Snakes use these pits to sense the location of anything that differs in temperature from its surroundings by as little as 0.4 degrees Fahrenheit.
• The first reptiles evolved in the Upper Carboniferous period, at least 300 million years ago. The Class Reptilia consists of three orders: _______• Order Crocodilia, consisting of roughly 30 species and subspecies of crocodile, alligator and caiman _______• Order Chelonia (tortoises and turtles), at least 244 species _______• Order Squamata, includes lizards (over 3,750 species), snakes (about 3,000 species) and the lesser known Amphisbaenians or “worm lizard.”
• There are about 160 species of Amphisbaenians, and they are found in Africa, Europe, Asia, North and South America. They are burrowing animals, up to 2 feet long, whose ring like scales gives them an earthworm like appearance.
• The fourth Order, Rhynchocephalia, flourished in pre-historic times but is now almost extinct. The number of species making up the single living genus, represented by the Tuatara, is still being argued.
• The Tuatara is extremely rare, found on just a few islands near New Zealand. Superficially lizard like, the Tuatara has unique eye and jaw anatomy, which among other factors separate it taxonomically (that is, the factors which determine its place in our classification of order, family, genus and species). Unusually for reptiles, Tuataras are adapted to life at temperatures as low as 6 degrees Celsius (43 degrees Fahrenheit).
• Reptiles, like birds, have voluntary control over the muscles in their eyes, which determine their pupil size. This means that they are able to constrict or dilate their pupils at will, not just in response to light.
• The brain of a reptile is not more than 1 percent of his body mass. This means that the brain of a 70-pound python is no larger than a lima bean. Unlike amphibians, however, the reptilian brain has two hemispheres. Since man appears to use very little of his brain mass, the reptilian brain appears to be highly and efficiently adapted. The nervous systems of reptiles are sufficiently complex and similar to those of mammals that we can conclude that their senses and pain perception are highly refined. We are only beginning to understand just how highly specialized these animals are.
• Reptiles were the first vertebrates to evolve with 12 cranial nerves. “Lower” vertebrates have 10 pairs of these important nerves, which govern activities of the senses, such as sight, hearing and taste.
• The jaw structure of a reptile does not permit chewing; they can only tear their food.
• Some reptile species are known to store sperm and produce young 3 and perhaps 6 or more years after a single, successful mating. In some cases, it is possible to have an infertile clutch followed by a fertile clutch without further matings.
• The sex of a turtle is determined by the temperature at which the egg is incubated, with warmer temperatures producing females, cooler temperatures producing males and temperatures in the middle resulting in a mixed clutch. The situation is reversed for crocodiles, with males predominating at higher temperatures. The gender of a snake is determined by chromosomes, as it is in the case of mammals and birds.
• Reptiles do not have sweat or sebaceous glands; therefore, they are not slimy. They are, however, waterproof, and this, in addition to lacking a metamorphic stage is one of the distinctions between amphibians and reptiles (tadpoles metamorphose, or change, into frogs). The reptilian egg, with calcium in its shell is not dependant on development in water, as is the amphibian egg.
• Reptiles are not “cold blooded”; rather they are ectothermic animals, which rely on heat to be provided by the environment, as they produce little of their own. Behavior, such as seeking shade, gaping and shunting blood toward or away from the body surface allows impressively fine control of body temperature several degrees above or below the ambient temperature. When housed in suitable environments, most reptiles when active, maintain a body temperature similar to that of mammals.
• Turtles can recognize faces and can do tricks.
• There has actually been documented cases of frog showers during heavy summer rainstorms. Fish have also been reported to rain from the sky.
• A gathering of frogs is called an army.
• Frogs can throw up in space by inverting their stomachs, cleaning it with their hands, and reswallowing it.
• The age of reptiles was ended by a meteor. Only 4% of species survived to repopulate the world.
• Frogs have a sticky tongue that allows them to catch their prey more easily • Frogs have an extra transparent eyelid, called a nictating membrane, that they use to protect their eyes when they're underwater
• Frog can change the colour of their skin
• Frogs don't need to drink, they simply absorb water through their skin.
• RATTLESNAKES can strike you from beyond the grave--and this bizarre form of posthumous revenge is surprisingly common. Two doctors in Arizona say that nearly 15 per cent of the people they treated for rattlesnake bites were attacked by animals that had been fatally bludgeoned, shot or decapitated.
• The largest snakes in the world are members of the family Boidae, which includes the boa and the python. Some members of this family never attain a length of more than 0.6 m (2 ft), but the largest may grow to more than 9 m (30 ft).
• The skin and outer covering of the horny scales are shed periodically and usually in one piece, including the hard, transparent covering of the eye known as the spectacle (snakes lack movable eyelids, and the spectacle protects the constantly open eyes).
• The frequency of shedding varies with different species , according to the size and age of the individual. Young, rapidly growing snakes shed their skins more frequently than the slow-growing adults. In some species the skin is shed about every 20 days; in others, only once a year.
• The snake must bite to inject its venom; no snake has a stinger in its tail.
• Three species can spit or eject the venom in a fine spray, which is aimed at the eyes of an enemy and projected for distances up to 2.4 m (8 ft). If the venom gets into the eyes, it may cause blindness. The spitting is used only in defense and never to obtain food.
• The big pythons can eat animals that weigh up to about 68 kg (150 lb), but swallowing such a meal is a difficult process.
• Vision is well developed in most snakes, but many burrowing snakes are virtually blind.
• Snakes have a strong sense of smell, which is relied on to a large extent in hunting food. Snakes find their prey by sight and scent, and sometimes temperature. Except for burrowing species, snakes have excellent short-range vision. Their sense of smell is extraordinary, thanks to a harmless, constantly flicking forked tongue that carries scent particles to a specialized sensory organ ('Jacobson's organ') on the roof of the mouth.
• Snakes are deaf to airborne sounds. The Cobra does not hear, as it is believed, the snake-charmer's flute. They can, however, feel vibrations through the ground or whatever they are resting on.
• Snakes move slower than an adult human can run; the fastest recorded speed achieved by any snake is about 13 km/hr (8 mph), but few can go that fast.
• Depending on the species, snakes may be egg-layers or give birth to live young.
• They generally mate in the spring, shortly after leaving whatever hollow, burrow or rock crevice has sheltered them through winter hibernation. Egg-layers usually deposit groups of eggs in dirt, beneath stones or logs, or in piles of decaying wood or vegetation during late spring or early summer. Most snakes hatch or are born in late summer. Whether deposited as eggs or dropped as fully formed miniature adults, snakes are on their own from the start. Snakes do not take any responsibility for the care and protection of their young. Most snakes mature at one or two years of age, and individuals may live up to twenty years in the wild.
• The greatest age known for any snake is just under 30 years, attained by both the anaconda and the black-lipped cobra.
• Effects of the bites of both Black and Green Mambas produce neurotoxins, which is why they kill so fast. Black mamba is more venomous.
• Neurotoxin inhibitors and antivenin are generally made from the venom of the same snake, but it is likely that antivenin from one would be at least partially effective against the other.
• Because these are two different snakes, their venom has to be different and thus the antivenim from one may not act for the other.
• The tuatara is just like a reptile that lived millions of years ago, even before the dinosaurs. Today it only lives in New zealand, where it often shares a petrel's burrow. In the day, the tuatara may even be left with a baby chick while the mother hunts for food.
• A gathering of frogs is called an army.
• A Burmese Python can grow to be in excess of 20 feet long!
• Nile crocodiles have been known to reach speeds of up to 29 miles per hour.
• Over 8,000 people are bitten by poisonous snakes in the United States each year. On average, fewer than 10 snakebite deaths are reported. In fact more people die from wasp and bee stings than from snakebites.
• Despite their relatively modest 20 in. size , bearded dragons are still considered by many to be a "giant" lizard.
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The species of crocodile that you will see on safari in Africa is called the Nile crocodile even though they are distributed right across the continent from north to south. And they are not very difficult to find in most national parks. Just drive to a reasonably large body of water and you will probably see a few of them lying on the side or partially submerged in the water.
If you wait around there awhile you might see some interesting crocodile behaviour. I've seen an elephant in a very bad mood run up to a crocodile on the bank and chase it into the water with a flapping of ears and a flick of the trunk.
They grow to reach sizes of up to 5m (16 ft) and adults normally weigh around about 225 kg (500lb) but they have been known to reach a weight of 700kg (1500lb).
You might be lucky enough to hear them vocalise. They have a surprising vocal range which includes hissing and during the mating season they will produce fearsome roars and bellows.
Another time at a dam that was busy drying up during a drought I watched as a group of crocodiles feasted on hundreds of catfish that were left thrashing in the mud by the disappearing water.
Up to 70 percent of the adult reptiles diet consists of fish but the larger ones will eat anything that comes down to take a drink at the waters edge if they can catch it so zebra, wildebeest, hippo, buffalo, antelope and even the big cats are at risk.
There have even been reports of crocodile latching on to the tip of elephants trunks and being lifted bodily out of the water and thrown onto the bank for its trouble. Probably not a mistake they will make twice.
Crocodiles do kill a number of humans in Africa every year because they are so adept at ambush hunting, lying concealed under the water and then exploding towards the bank to latch on with their jaws.
A game ranger in the Kruger National Park was attacked by a crocodile which bit into his leg and started dragging him towards deep water where it would drown him.
He only escaped death because his friend managed to pry him away from the reptiles jaws in a deadly tug of war but it took at least half an hour. The ranger was badly hurt but managed to recover and resume his duties in the reserve with some huge scars to remind him of his ordeal.
