Museum of Living Art - Amphibians versus Reptiles

Both reptiles and amphibians are cold-blooded vertebrates. That means that unlike humans, amphibians and reptiles are not able to maintain their own body temperatures. Instead, they must depend on their environment to keep them warm or cool. Being vertebrates simply means that, like humans, they all have backbones. Although commonly grouped together as "herps," reptiles and amphibians have many incredible differences!

Amphibians

• From the class Amphibia
  


• Over 6,000 species
  


• Include 6,148 species of frogs, toads, newts, salamanders and caecilians
  


• Larvae (early life forms) of these species typically hatch in water and breathe by gills, and then undergo metamorphosis (a complete change in form) to become adults that breathe by lungs and through their skin
  


• Most need water to reproduce because their eggs have a jellylike coating instead of a shell
  


• For protection, some secrete poison through skin
  


• Ancestral to reptiles
  

Reptiles

• From the class Reptilia
  


• Over 8,000 species of turtles, tortoises, snakes, lizards, crocodilians and tuatara
  


• Have dry skin with scales or horny plates
  


• Young typically hatch from eggs on land because their eggs have shells
  


• For protection, some inject venom through fangs
  


• Ancestral to birds
  

Top