Pet Carnivals

I’m sure it was in grade school when we learned the difference between Reptiles vs Amphibians. I clearly remember first grade being the time of dinosaurs and writing a detailed report (well…as detailed as a 6 year old can be) about Triceratops.

Reptiles and Amphibians, however don’t stick out in my mind. It may have been first, second, or third grade. By the way, I also remember reporting on whales in the fifth grade.

Reptiles versus Amphibians

Now that I’m in my mid 30′s recalling information from my childhood is slightly more difficult. What do I remember about reptiles and amphibians? As far as memory serves a reptile in general is a land dweller while an amphibian lives part of it’s life in water then the second part of it’s life on land.

I know pretty vague…so I decided to do a little research and found a great website on Amphibians and Reptiles. So, this website is pretty cool and basically allows you to compare two different things with each other thus the name of the website diffen.com.

Photo by Pingu1963

Photo by avmaier

Amphibians - I read through the Amphibians vs Reptiles article and I was right – Amphibian means “living double lives”. As I mentioned earlier – half their life is lived in water with gills and as they grow older they grow lungs and move to the land. Amphibians go through a metamorphosis where as we mentioned they start with gills and later grow lungs. If you think of a frog they start as a tadpole (looks a lot like a fish) and then as they mature grow legs and lungs as an adult frog.

Some examples of Amphibians are Frogs, Newts, and Salamanders.

Photo by Peasap

Reptiles – Earlier in this article I mentioned reptiles and what I thought they were. Well, luckily I came across a little more detail on reptiles. Most reptiles live on land, have scales, breathe air, and reproduce by laying eggs. They don’t go through a metamorphosis like amphibians and a young reptile looks like a small version of the adult.

Some examples of Reptiles are Lizards, Snakes, Turtles, and Crocodiles.

Life With Amphibians And Reptiles

As a kid growing up we had both Amphibians and Reptiles at our house. I distinctly remember having a few very large tadpoles and remember seeing the legs start to protrude from the body. I was very young and kind of wonder if this was part of learning that my parents tried to instill in my youth.

We were not without reptiles as a family either. A neighborhood friend used to always go out to the desert and catch lizards. One year he brought six home and gave them to us. My favorite of the group was the horned toad lizard who supposedly can spray blood from his eyes as self defense. I remember the horned toad as a very docile lizard who liked having his head rubbed.

Now that we know the difference between the Reptiles and the Amphibians you’ll notice (or maybe not) that this site has a section labeled Reptiles. For the purposes of this site all Reptiles and Amphibians will be categorized in this group.

How about you? Have you owned any reptiles or amphibians as pets?

No related posts.

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.