More than 1 50 a wesome photos of Australian re p tiles wit h fu n facts & easy -t o-f ollo w informati on.
Reptiles
REPTILES
What is a reptile?
Gecko
Snakes, lizards, turtles and crocodiles are reptiles. Even though they look unlike each other, they all have two things in common — they all have scaly skin and they are all cold-blooded. Most of them also lay eggs.
Crocodile
Lizard
Snake
Turtle
s g g e t s e i l r a e The Reptiles were among the earliest animals on Earth. Millions of years ago, reptiles, like dinosaurs, were able to move from swamps and seas onto land because they were the ďŹ rst animals to lay hard-shelled eggs. Eggs provide a watery home for babies, even when laid far from water.
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Freshwater turtle
Lizard-like dinosaurs Hundreds of footprints of small, lizard-like dinosaurs were fossilised in the mud at Lark Quarry in Queensland after a dinosaur stampede. Some lizards today still run on their back legs like dinosaurs would have.
From Steve Parish Publishing’s Nature Watch: Reptiles ~ www.steveparish.com.au
REPTILE BODIES
Different shapes Reptiles come in all shapes and sizes. Some have four legs. Some, like snakes, have no legs at all. And others, such as some small sandswimming lizards, have just two tiny bumps where their legs should be.
Turtle
Thorny devil lizard
Heads or tails? The shingleback skink looks very odd because its tail looks like its head. Enemies may bite the skink’s tail thinking it is the head, making it easy for the skink to escape. But its tail’s main use is not to trick predators — it is to store fat that the skink can use as energy if its food runs out.
Shingleback skink
From Steve Parish Publishing’s Nature Watch: Reptiles ~ www.steveparish.com.au
Turtles have shells that cover most of their bodies. They have four legs that poke out from beneath them that are used to walk and swim. They also have a small, pointy tail. Most lizards have four legs, but there are some that have no legs at all and are often mistaken for snakes. Some look like they have two heads, but this is just a trick.
Snakes have no legs at all. Instead, they slither on their bellies. Snakes can slither very fast and some can even climb trees. Black-headed python
Snake-lizards look a lot like snakes but they are totally harmless lizards. Unlike snakes, they don’t have forked tongues. Burton’s snake-lizard
Geckoes are a type of thinskinned lizard that mostly come out at night.
Skinks make up one of the biggest reptile groups on Earth and come in many shapes and sizes.
Skink
Gecko
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Some lizards i can even make e rn el b l u e - t o ng u their tails fall off when they are in danger. This tricks their enemy into chasing the twitching tail, instead of the lizard. za
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REPTILE CAMOUFLAGE A gecko with spots
Playing hide & seek The best way to hide is to make yourself look like a natural part of the habitat that surrounds you. This is called camouflage, and reptiles are very good at it. Camouflage is really important, whether you are hunting or being hunted.
Spots, stripes, blotches and colours help reptiles hide. Sometimes predators see the spots or stripes before they see the whole reptile itself. By the time they notice that the spot or stripe belongs to prey they can eat, the prey has run away! Sometimes they may not even see the reptile at all. A gecko with blotches
A gecko with stripes
A copycat skink C en
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Desert death adder
An animal’s colour can do more than just help it hide. The harmless centralian bluetongue has a pattern that looks similar to the deadly desert death adder’s. Predators might stay away from the lizard just in case it bites. This kind of copycat behaviour is called mimicry.
Leaf-tailed gecko
Leaf-tailed geckoes are so well camouflaged that few people notice them at all! Their blotchy, spiny skin looks the same as the bark they live on. This tricks other animals into believing the leaf-tailed gecko is part of a leaf or a tree branch.
The pebble earless dragon is very good at camouflaging. The dragon keeps still among stones, where its colour makes it look like the pebbles. It can also change its colour. Can you spot the dragon in this picture?
y e o e u s ! t ’ n a c I We can also use camouflage to sneak up close to animals to take photographs of them. When we hide in the surrounding tall grasses and bushes, we can blend in and hide much better with camouflage.
From Steve Parish Publishing’s Nature Watch: Reptiles ~ www.steveparish.com.au
REPTILES — SNAKES
Snakes - bendy bodies Australia is home to some of the deadliest snakes in the world, but most of them live out in the bush and are rarely seen by humans. All snakes should be left alone because they may bite, whether they are deadly or not.
Snakes have no eyelids, so they can’t blink, wink or close their eyes. But they can still move quickly. Plus, they can “feel” sound better than other animals. And their eyesight is still good enough for them to find their way around, even at night.
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Snakes seem to have missed out on a lot of things! They have no legs, so they slither instead of walking. They have no ears (at least on the outside), so they do not hear in the same way that humans hear.
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Eastern carpet python
From Steve Parish Publishing’s Nature Watch: Reptiles ~ www.steveparish.com.au
Ancient, leftover legs Pythons have tiny blunt spikes, called spurs, on either side of the body, just in front of the tail. Scientists believe these are “leftover legs” from ancient days when snakes had legs.
Western brown snake
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Slithery skeletons The secret to how a snake slithers is its bendy skeleton. A snake’s backbone is made up of many small bones called vertebrae, which are attached to its ribs. Muscles around the snake’s ribs move and act a little like oars that push the body forwards.
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REPTILES — LIZARDS
Lizards - large & small Except for legless lizards, most lizards have legs. They also have other features that snakes do not have. For instance, most have eyelids that open and close and ear openings to help them hear sounds. There are five main kinds of lizard. Legless lizards are often mistaken for snakes and some are even known as snake-lizards. Although they look like snakes, a few things prove they are not. Firstly, many of them have small flaps of skin or very tiny limbs on the back of the body. Secondly, they never have forked tongues like snakes; their tongues are broad and flat.
1. Legless lizards
2. Skinks
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Some of the most common lizards are skinks, geckoes, goannas and dragons. Dragons are beautiful, sometimes scary, large lizards. They are named dragons because of the many frills and spines on their colourful bodies.
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3. Dragon lizards
Australia has many bluetongue lizards that all belong to the skink family. They have a close relative that has a bright pink tongue and is known as the pink-tongued skink.
Perentie
4. Monitor lizards The largest Australian lizard, the perentie, is a type of montior lizard that can grow more than 2 metres long! That is longer than an adult is tall!
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5. Geckoes
p ! i r g a g n Getti Pale, big-eyed geckoes can often be seen running up or along the walls of houses at night. They have special feet that allow them to stick to the wall, or even the ceiling, like Velcro™! From Steve Parish Publishing’s Nature Watch: Reptiles ~ www.steveparish.com.au
REPTILES GLOSSARY
ADAPTATION To change over time to fit into an environment.
FOSSILISED Having become a fossil.
AESTIVATION Sleeping or becoming very still in hot weather to save energy.
HABITAT The place where an animal lives and breeds or where a plant grows.
ANTIVENOM A treatment for snakebite that is made out of venom and can help people who have been bitten by snakes recover.
HATCHLING A young animal that has recently broken free from its egg.
BASK To lie in the sun. BREED To have young that can go on to have their own children. CAMOUFLAGE Colouring that helps an animal blend in to a habitat’s backgound.
FRAGILE Easily broken.
HIBERNATION Sleeping or becoming very still in cold weather to save energy. MATE When a male animal transfers special cells (called sperm) to a female’s eggs, which causes young animals to develop. MILK To take venom out of a snake.
CARAPACE A hard shell that covers the top and sides of a turtle’s body.
MIMICRY When an animal looks or acts like another animal.
CARNIVORE An animal that eats meat and other animals.
OSTEODERMS Thick, bony parts of a turtle or crocodile’s skin.
COLD-BLOODED Using the sun to heat the body and provide energy.
PREDATOR An animal that hunts and eats other animals.
DIGEST How the body converts food so that it can be absorbed.
PREY An animal that is hunted and eaten by other animals. To hunt and eat other animals.
FIERCE Wild in appearance or action.
PUPIL The black spot or slit in the centre of the eye. REPEL To force back or keep away. SHED To lose skin by a natural process; for example, a snake shedding its skin. STAMPEDE A sudden rush of animals. TOXIC Poisonous. UNDULATE Move in a rippling, or wave-like, motion. VENOM Poison made by animals that can be injected into prey. VERTEBRAE The bones in the backbone or spine.
From Steve Parish Publishing’s Nature Watch: Reptiles ~ www.steveparish.com.au