Reptiles. Serpentarium (45 wallpapers)

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Reptiles, or reptiles (lat. Reptilia) - a class (according to the traditional classification), or a paraphyletic group (according to the cladistic classification) of predominantly terrestrial vertebrates, including modern turtles, crocodiles, beakheads, amphisbaena, lizards and snakes. In the XVIII-XIX centuries, together with amphibians, reptiles were combined into a group - cold-blooded terrestrial vertebrates. About 9400 species of reptiles are known in the world, 72 species live on the territory of Russia.

The largest land animals belonged to dinosaurs - representatives of ancient reptiles. Reptiles flourished during the Mesozoic era, when they dominated land, sea and air. At the end of the Cretaceous period, most of the reptiles died out. Modern reptiles are just scattered remnants of that world.



The origin of reptiles is one of the important issues in the theory of evolution, the process that resulted in the appearance of the first animals belonging to the class Reptiles (lat. Reptilia).
Varanus niloticus ornatus at London Zoo

The first terrestrial vertebrates arose at the end of the Devonian. These were shell-headed amphibians (the obsolete name is stegocephals; now most of these animals are included in the labyrinthodonts). They lived near reservoirs and were closely associated with them, since they bred only in water. The development of spaces remote from water bodies required a significant restructuring of the organization: adaptation to protecting the body from drying out, to breathing atmospheric oxygen, efficient movement on a solid substrate, and the ability to reproduce outside the water. These are the basic prerequisites for the emergence of a qualitatively different group of animals - reptiles. These restructurings were quite complex, for example, it required the design of powerful lungs, a change in the nature of the skin.






























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