Athena Review Image Archive ™
Reptiles
The Green Iguana, a sauropsid reptile.
The term Reptilia
was originally used as as a class of vertebrates in 18th and 19th
century Linnean taxonomy. Reptiles are now divided into two main
groups, sauropsid and synapsid, with the former leading to dinosaurs and lizard-like reptiles, and the latter leading to therapsids and early mammals.
In the late 19th century, after the theory of evolution became current in paleontology, the term amniote
was introduced as a phyllum by Ernst Haeckl to distinguish reptiles
from amphibians, on the basis of reptiles being amniotes (i.e., born in
protective amniotic eggs), while amphibian tadpoles were released in
water.
At about the same time, the term sauropsid
("lizard face") was coined by Thomas Henry Huxley in 1863 to include most fossil and
extant reptiles. In the early 20th century, this was contrasted with
“beast face” (therapsid)
reptiles, the latter constituting mammal-like reptiles, whose fossils
were beginning to be recognized in Late Permian deposits in South
Africa.
In the mid 20th century, on the basis of diagnostic skull openings, Alfred Romer (1956) distinguished two groups of reptiles, diapsids ("two-openings") and anapsids ("no openings") from synapsids ("one opening," which included therapsids), the latter deviating from reptiles and ancestral to mammals. Presently, the term synapsid is used as primarily contrastive with sauropsid reptile, since the split between the two groups was early (ca. 315 mya), arising not long after reptiles (amniotes) split from amphibians (non-amniotes)
The green iguana (Iguana iguana) is a large, arboreal, mostly herbivorous reptile of the Squamata ("scaled") order. First described by Linnaeus (1758). the word iguana is derived the Taíno name iwana. The iguana lives throughout a large area, from southern Brazil and Paraguay to southern Mexico. It grows up to to 1.5 metres (4.9 ft) in length from head to tail.
References:
Huxley, T.H. 1863
Linnaeus 1758
Romer, A.S. 1956
Copyright © 1996-2020 Rust Family Foundation (All Rights Reserved).