A Brief Overview of Reptiles

By Stephen Ayer

Leave it to Mother Nature to come up with an improved system. A while ago, say two or three hundred million years or maybe more ago, amphibians were unable to populate the ground as they could not lay their eggs there. Allegedly, evolution became predominant and shortly, reptiles emerged. They began to lay their eggs that have covers that feel more like natural leather than a normal eggshell. All of this transpired in the age when coal beds were being created on the planet, which is known as the Carboniferous age. You can thank those original reptiles for a lot of the oil you've got right now.

Current reptiles are a tad different; though the diversities are usually not extensive. They mostly consist of the contour of their heads and equivalent specifics. But the fact they are vertebrates continues to be the same. Vertebrates are creatures that have spines. Reptiles are also cold-blooded tetrapods. That can make them seem horrible, and countless years back quite a few were. But what it really signifies is that they have to depend on the surroundings to manipulate their inner warmth, and that they move on all fours. A T-Rex may well beg to differ with the latter.

Reptiles are commonly layered in scales and may have bony exterior plates such as the skin of an alligator or the shell of a turtle. Don't let the look fool you, though. As opposed to several animals that are useful for producing natural leather products, the epidermis is really quite thin. Luckily, the armor, scales and spines guard them against many predators, however, not each of them. As an example, the jaws of a crocodile are sufficiently strong enough to crush the shell of a big tortoise.

Reptiles have a low resting metabolism, which means they can stay at rest for long periods and use almost no energy. For example, an alligator while resting will only burn around 1/10 of the energy that another animal will when it is idle. This function also is useful for maintaining body temperature. Some reptiles, including snakes, may pig out when they dine, therefore, they might go for long stretches before eating again.

Certain reptiles are asexual. That indicates they do not need mate to reproduce. A few geckos and chameleons, and sometimes Komodo dragons, have the ability to develop a clone of the mother. Scientists have found colonies that were fully made up of females because of this.

People like to collect reptiles of all sorts including tortoises, snakes and lizards. There's no question they can be intriguing and make good conversation topics. A few, like boas, are hard to look after; but others, like geckos, are straightforward. They make wonderful beginning pets. The manager of an excellent exotic pet shop will be able to fill you in about the details of what you require to bring them up. Likelihood is, you are going to fall head over heels for one when you are there.

About the Author:

Stephen Ayer is a lover of lizards. At his store at JabberwockReptiles.com you can learn even more fun reptile facts and tips for raising reptiles.