Reptilia

Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Reptilia

Orders within the class reptilia:

• Testudines - turtles
• Squamata - snakes and lizards
• Crocodilia - crocodiles and alligators
• Rhynchocephalia - tuatara

The class reptilia is the level in the taxonomic hierarchy that contains all reptiles. There are several characteristics that are true of all reptiles, and many more that are broadly true. All reptiles obviously posess the features of their kingdom and class

• Breath air and perform gas exchange using lungs
• Are cold blooded
• Have two sexes fertilize internally
• Share a common set of internal organs
• Have a complex nervous system

• Lay eggs
• Are tetrapodal (have four legs)
• Have hard scales or some other form of exoskeleton

Rep*til"i*a (r?p-t?l"?-?), n.pl. [NL.] Zool.

A class of air-breathing oviparous vertebrates, usually covered with scales or bony plates. The heart generally has two auricles and one ventricle. The development of the young is the same as that of birds.

⇒ It is nearly related in many respects to Aves, or birds. The principal existing orders are Testidunata or Chelonia (turtles), Crocodilia, Lacertilla (lizards), Ophidia (serpents), and Rhynchocephala; the chief extinct orders are Dinosauria, Theremorpha, Mosasauria, Pterosauria, Plesiosauria, Ichtyosauria.

© Webster 1913.