Class Reptilia

About reptilia

• Habitat- Warm tropical areas including deserts,

oceans, swamps and forests.
• Symmetry-Bilaterally symmetrical
• Level of organization- Organ system level
• Number of germinal layers- Triploblastic
• Coelom- True coelomate
• Reptiles comprise of 4 orders: Testudines
(turtles), Crocodilia (crocodilians), Squamata
(lizards and snakes), Rhynchocephalia (tuatara)
Origin of its name

• The class name comes from their

creeping or crawling mode of
locomotion. It is derived from the Latin
repere or reptum.
 Mode of
locomotion
Body structure

• Skin: The skin of animals in this class is dry and cornified

which is known as epidermal scales or scutes.
• Body form: They do not have external ear openings.
Tympanum represents the ear. If they have limbs it would
mostly be in two pairs.
• Endoskeleton: Reptiles do have an endoskeleton which
means their skeleton is present under the skin and is made
of bones.
• Skin cast: Animals like snakes and lizards to shed their
scales as skincast.
Circulatory system

• Most reptiles also have a three-chambered heart similar to the amphibian

heart that directs blood to the pulmonary and systemic circuits. It is
divided by a partial septum.
• Crocodiles have a four-chambered heart. Crocodilians have a unique
circulatory mechanism where the heart shunts blood from the lungs
toward the stomach and other organs during long periods of
submergence.
• Adaptations of crocodiles and alligators -
• 1. Two main arteries that leave the same part of the heart.
• 2. A hole in the heart between the two ventricles, called the foramen of
Panizza.
• 3. Specialized connective tissue that slows the blood flow to the lungs.
• Reptiles are poikilotherms.
• Poikilotherms - an organism that cannot regulate its body temperature.
 • Reptiles breathe air only through their lungs.
• Reptiles have various ways of moving air into and out of
Respiratory system their lungs. Most use muscles of the chest wall for this
purpose, except turtles
Digestive system

•It includes the mouth and its salivary glands, the

esophagus, the stomach, and the intestine and ends
in a cloaca.
•Of the few specializations of the reptilian digestive
system, the evolution of one pair of salivary glands
into poison glands in the venomous snakes is the
most remarkable.
•Mostly metanephric kidneys
•Waste material: uric acid and urea
Reproduction

• Most reptiles reproduce sexually and internal

fertilization occurs
• Sexes are separate (dioecious)
• They are oviparous organisms
• Their eggs are amniotic, so they can be laid on
land rather than on water. Amniotic eggs were an
important adaptation.
• Reptiles do not have a larval stage.
• Direct development
• Almost all reptiles do not take care of their eggs.
Examples
Fun Fact

• Reptiles of various size and shapes were

the main animals about 200 million years
ago in the Jurassic period.
• These fossil reptiles commonly called
dinosaurs.
• The thunder lizard brontosaurus was 25 m
long. It was the largest reptile.
• Their extinction resulted from competition
with early mammals or from climatic
changes due to the collision of a large
meteorite with the earth.