Intro: In today’s lab, we toured the rainforest exhibit at the Cleveland Zoo to see a variety of exotic reptile specimen that we had learned about in previous labs.
Families Seen:
Order Testudines
Carretochelyidae
Within the turtles, we saw a variety of specimen belonging to various families. This family is the pig-nosed turtles, aptly named for their upturned noses. A representative was seen in Carretochelys insculpta (Fly River Pignosed Turtle). These turtles are very similar to another family not seen on display, Trionychidae (soft-shelled turtles), due to their similar habitats.
Chelidae
A representative of the family Chelidae (Australoamerican Side Neck Turtles) was the Phrynops hilarii (Spot-Bellied Side-neck Turtle), that are found in S. America, as well as the Emydura subglobosa (Red-bellied short-necked turtle), and Chelodina mccordi (Roti Island snake-necked turtle).
Testudinidae
Order Squamata (Sauria/ Lacertilia)
Family Gekkonidae are the Geckos. They are represented by the Uroplatys henkeli (Madagascar Leaf-Tail Gecko).
Iguanidae
Family Iguanidae are the iguanas, and are represented by Bracylophus faciatus (Fiji Island Banded Iguana).
Scincidae
Family Scincidae are the Skinks, and are represented by Corucia zebrata (Prehensile-Tailed Skink).
Veranidae
Order Squamata (Serpentes/Ophidia)
Boidae
Family Boidae are the Boas. They are broken into many subfamilies, one of which is Boinae. Boinae are represented by Corallus caninus
Pythonidae
Colubridae
Family Colubridae is a diverse group of snakes. Within the family are many subfamilies, and the
Order Crocodilia
Order Crocodilia contains 3 major families, that break the Order intoncrocodiles, gharials and alligators. Only one family was present at the zoo, Gavialidae, which was represented by Gavialus gangeticus (Gharial).
No comments:
Post a Comment