The following is a more detailed listing of Class Reptilia. It includes those known extinct members, since these outnumber the living species and also give some guide to the relationships between dinosaurs, living reptiles, birds and mammals.
One of the major characteristics used to classify reptiles is the number of openings, or temporal fossae, in the skull. These large openings arose early on in reptilian life and allowed the jaw muscles to extend through them and be anchored onto the outside of the dermocranium. This in turn gave greater power to the jaws. The lack of temporal fossae should not be associated with backwardness, however: the turtles and tortoises of today, considered to be the more intelligent representatives of the Reptilia, all have anapsid skulls.
The dinosaurs are divided into two main orders based on the arrangement of the hip bones.
The listing given here is a fairly traditional one, and readers should note a couple of areas of difference: firstly, the Rhynchocephalia are not always recognised, and the tuatara considered instead as a suborder of the Squamata, along with lizards, snakes and amphisbaenians: secondly, the cladistic approach considers the birds to be a sister group of the Crocodilia and direct descendants of the dinosaurs. While there is a strong case for both these latter assertions (and in the nineteenth century the similarities had already been noted), it seems naturally difficult for most people to suddenly start regarding feathered creatures as the same type as scaled creatures, and so Class Aves (the birds) is traditionally regarded as separate from Class Reptilia.
Links are provided to the living families, about which information is provided elsewhere on the site. The rest of the groups listed here are extinct.
| SUBCLASS | ORDER | SUBORDER | Description |
| Anapsida | Temporal fossae lacking | ||
| Captorhinomorpha | Includes romeriids, earliest known reptiles | ||
| Cotylosauria | Large herbivores descended from captorhinomorpha | ||
| Mesosauria | Amphibious, with webbed feet, flattened tails and long narrow jaws with slender teeth: about 1m (3ft) long | ||
| Testudinata/Chelonia | Turtles and tortoises | ||
| Cryptodira | Chelonians retracting their head straight back | ||
| Pleurodira | Chelonians retracting their head sidewards | ||
| Synapsida | 1 pair of temporal fossae below the squamosal bone | ||
| Pelycosauria | Mammal-like dentition | ||
| Therapsida | Mammal-like and ancestral to mammals | ||
| Euryapsida | 1 pair of temporal fossae above the squamosal bone | ||
| Protosauria | Small lizard-like creatures | ||
| Sauropterygia | Paddle-limbed marine reptiles | ||
| Plesiosauria | Marine with flippers and often long necks | ||
| Ichthyosauria | Marine with fish-shaped bodies: may alternatively be considered a subclass | ||
| Lepidosauria | Primitive diapsids with 2 pairs of temporal fossae and scaly skins | ||
| Eosuchia | Common ancestor to lepidosaurs and possibly also to archosaurs | ||
| Rhynchocephalia | Lizard-like creatures: only 1 living species | ||
| Squamata | Modern reptiles, all of which periodically shed their skin | ||
| Lacertilia/Sauria | Lizards | ||
| Ophidia/Serpentes | Snakes | ||
| Amphisbaenia | Amphisbaenians or "worm lizards" | ||
| Archosauria | Advanced diapsids with 2 pairs of temporal fossae | ||
| Thecodontia | Teeth in sockets; originated bipedality; ancestral to dinosaurs | ||
| Phytosauria | Aquatic crocodile-like predators | ||
| Crocodilia | Quadrupedal, short-legged amphibious predators: largest living reptiles | ||
| Saurischia | Reptile-hipped dinosaurs having pubic symphysis | ||
| Theropoda | Carnivorous bipeds, including ancestors of birds | ||
| Sauropodomorpha | Quadrupedal herbivores, often reaching gigantic sizes | ||
| Ornithischia | Bird-hipped dinosaurs lacking pubic symphysis, usually herbivorous and quadrupedal | ||
| Hadrosauria | Bipedal, mostly duck-billed and amphibious | ||
| Stegosauria | Dorsal series of erect plates | ||
| Ankylosauria | Short-legged heavily-armoured | ||
| Ceratopsia | Bony head shield and horns | ||
| Pterosauria | Winged reptiles | ||
Zoology, the Animal Kingdom: A complete course in 1000 questions and answers, Nancy M Jessop, McGraw-Hill, 1995. A very useful and readable course in zoology, although modern concepts such as cladistics are not covered. The table above owes its inspiration to that on page 320 of the book (Table 21.1).
Zoology
Vertebrate Life, Pough, Geiser