Difference Between Amphibians And Reptiles

Amphibians and Reptiles are vertebrates or animals with backbones. The small vertebrates that need water or a moist environment are referred to as Amphibians whereas the tetrapod vertebrates are referred to as reptiles. Amphibians exhibit the ability to inhabit both aquatic and terrestrial environments. In contrast, the reptiles have mastered life on land with their diverse adaptation and scaly skin.

Difference between Amphibians and Reptiles

Characteristics	Reptiles	Amphibians
Definition	Reptiles are cold blooded, vertebrate animals who possess dry, scaly skin and lay shelled eggs on the land	Amphibians are cold-blooded, vertebrate animals who possess an aquatic gill-breathing larval stage and terrestrial, lung-breathing adult stages
First Evolution	About 315 million years ago	About 370 million years ago.
Size	Larger	Smaller
Skin	Dry, Scaly Skin	Soft moist skin
Claws	Has claws	Lack claws
Habitat	Can live far away from water, even in deserts	Need to live close to water as they need their skin to be wet to be able to breathe a while
Adult Stage	Young reptile hatches from its egg it looks more like a small adult and can already defend and feed oneself	Amphibians have a larval stage before becoming an adult which usually a fish-like with gills and tails
Brain	Larger	Smaller
Fertilization	Internal	External
Eggs	Hard, shelled eggs	Soft, shell-less eggs
Examples	Crocodiles, snakes, lizard and turtles etc.	Frogs and toads, salamanders, Caecilian etc.

Characteristics of Reptiles

Following are some of the features of Reptiles:

• Dry Scaly Skin: Scales are dry hard folds of skin made with Keratin i.e. the same substance from which the human hair and fingernails are made.
• Oviparous: Since they lay eggs, they are called oviparous.
• Breathe with Lungs.
• Cold Blooded: It doesn’t mean their blood is cold. It simply means that they depend on the external weather conditions to regulate their own temperature)
• They tend to become sluggish during night when the weather is cold and dark, and they become active when the weather is hot.
• They eat much less than other birds and mammals.
• Nearly all reptiles move by crawling (Reptiles like crocodiles use their four legs to crawl while reptiles like snakes use their body to crawl).

Types of Reptiles

There are many types of reptiles but there are only four living orders:

1. Tuatara: It is a living fossil and found only in New Zealand.
2. Lizards and Snakes: It is the most successful order of reptiles.
3. Turtles and Tortoises: Both of those primarily living in water and those living on land and their body remains covered by hard shells.
4. Crocodiles: Large lizard shaped predatory reptiles.

Characteristics of Amphibians

Following are some of the features of Amphibians:

• Soft moist skin (they need to keep their skin damp all the time thus they spent most of their life in water)
• Cold Blooded animals (they depend on the temperature of atmosphere to keep the body temperature regulated)
• Oviparous
• They have Primitive lungs, and they breathe with the help of their skin.

Types of Amphibians

Following are the types of Amphibians:

1. Frog: It is a tailless amphibian with a short squat body, moist smooth skin and very long hind legs for leaping.
2. Toad: Certain types of frogs characterized by dry leathery skin, short legs and a large pump covering the paranoid glands.
3. Salamander: A type of amphibian that looks similar to lizard with its slender body and four limb and spends most of its life in water.
4. Newt: A small animal similar to lizard that mostly lives in water and also on land.
5. Ensantina: A species of salamander that displays a variety of colors from reddish to brown to black.
6. Caecilian: These are legless amphibians that look like large worms or small snakes. These are harmless to humans but they possess sharp needle like teeth.

FAQs on Amphibians and Reptiles

1. How do amphibians reproduce in water?

Answer:

Many amphibians lay eggs in water, which hatch into aquatic larvae (such as tadpoles) that undergo metamorphosis into terrestrial adults.

2. What is the primary habitat preference of amphibians?

Answer:

Amphibians are often found in or near water bodies due to their aquatic larval stages and moisture-dependent skin.

3. Give an example of a reptile that has adapted to extreme arid conditions.

Answer:

The desert-dwelling Gila monster is an example of a reptile that has adapted to conserve water and survive in arid environments.

4. Give an example of a reptile that gives live birth instead of laying eggs?

Answer:

The viviparous lizard is an example of a reptile that gives birth to live young, unlike most reptiles that lay eggs.

5. What adaptations allow reptiles to inhabit deserts successfully?

Answer:

Reptiles in deserts have efficient kidneys to conserve water and specialized behaviors to minimize heat absorption.