Decline in Reptile forum...

[Flywaver]

Far too many Amphibian topics for my liking!
Maybe a Reptile forum needed.. Just an idea.
Went out herping again in Clay Norfolk. Again a fruitless day although i turned a corner and four Roe Deer were looking at me...
I'm beginning to give up on my Adder quest.. I'll be luckier with the holy Grail... Grrrr

[Farplace]

Perhaps it is more to do with the time of year? Just now there is a lot happening with amphibians, but less happening in the reptile world... Give it a couple more weeks....
Jan

[aeshna5]

Yes- definitely to do with the time of year. Every year at this time there is a flood of frog spawning posts.

In a month or so there'll be a lot more reptile posts. Also far more of us have amphibia in our gardens but few or no reptiles. Though I can see 5 species (4 native) of reptile within a few miles of my home I don't get any in the garden.

[marvin]

hi

don't give up! still early yet and the longer it takes to find your first one the more gratification you'll get when you finally do. it took me months to find my first adder at my local site in staffs but once i found one it became much easier.

on the subject of reptiles and amphibians, it is strange how they always get lumped together. they're not really that closely related at all. reptiles are far more closely related to birds. in fact some reptiles are more closely related to birds than they are to other reptiles!

i'm not campaigning for a change or anything because i don't really think its that important. just making an observation.

tim

[STYRBJORN]

[quote=marvin;740429]hi

on the subject of reptiles and amphibians, it is strange how they always get lumped together. they're not really that closely related at all. reptiles are far more closely related to birds. in fact some reptiles are more closely related to birds than they are to other reptiles!

It's worserer than that. Reptiles really annoy taxonomists, the people who classify living things. The other vertebrates can be given a necessary and sufficient definition, and can be put into "clades", such that all members share a common ancestor. Although "fish" does not constitute a clade, "bony fish" does, with sharks and rays, which have cartilaginous skeletons, forming a clade of their own. Birds are birds and form a good clade. Mammals form a clade, as do amphibians. Reptiles do not, and they are difficult to break into smaller clades. Crocodiles are more closely related to birds than they are to turtles, as stated. Actually, coelocanths are more closely related to humans then they are to other fish. All these groups get messy round the edges, but the reptiles are messy through and through. The point here is that amphibians' and reptiles' most recent common ancestor was about 350MYA and was also ancestor to all land dwelling vertebrates. The term "reptile" is a bit of a dustbin. If it isn't a fish, or a shark, or a bird, or a mammal, or an amphibian . . . oh sod it, call it a reptile.

Ric