{"id":3112,"date":"2021-06-22T22:57:43","date_gmt":"2021-06-22T22:57:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.frogpets.com\/?p=3112"},"modified":"2022-03-08T20:46:07","modified_gmt":"2022-03-08T20:46:07","slug":"reptile-amphibian-differences","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.frogpets.com\/reptile-amphibian-differences\/","title":{"rendered":"Reptiles vs. Amphibians: The Major Differences"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Amphibians and reptiles both belong to the group of animals called vertebrates as they contain backbone in their body. More specifically, both are cold-blooded vertebrates<\/strong>. One may easily confuse between the two because they share many related features.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Owing to their similarities and close evolutionary relationship, both of these groups are studied under Herpetology<\/em>, in Greek Herpo<\/em> means “to crawl” or “creep”.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n

All of the land animals track their evolutionary ancestry to marine animals (dominantly fish). Amphibians and reptiles were among the early animals that moved away from the aquatic environment and started colonizing the land and terrestrial ecosystems.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

These were the first tetrapod descendants of a group of sarcopterygian fish (lobe-finned). In another fossil discovery, researchers published the existence of Tiktaalik roseae<\/em> \u201ctetrapod-like fish\u201d, which appeared as an intermediate between finned fish and tetrapods having limbs. This organism supposedly lived in shallow waters around 375 million years ago.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

Well, now you know the basics of where they came from. But what about their differences? Keep reading to find out!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Differences Between Reptiles & Amphibians<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

While both groups share many similarities, they possess even more differences which we will discuss here for your understanding. These differences which arose have their roots in genetic mutations\/altering and pressure posed by natural selection.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Amphibians<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
\"Glass
Photo by: Dirk Ercken \/ Shutterstock<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Amphibians<\/em> were the first which localized on land, although they still need water for reproduction purposes. Hence from Greek origin amphibian means \u2018double life\u2019 as they live on land and part of their life in water also. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Amphibians initially evolved<\/a> into a great number of species but a lot of these went extinct over time owing to abiotic stress acting as a filter for only the fittest species to survive.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Because amphibians live in marginal conditions and need both land and water in the vicinity for their living and reproduction, any change in either environment adversely affects their survivability.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Owing to changing environments including human interventions, we lost a broad spectrum of amphibian diversity, what we see in the present day is only a fraction of initial diversity. Of course, present-day species are more fit than ones that have gone extinct but degrading water quality and other environmental factors still pose a great threat to their survival.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Characteristics:<\/h4>\n\n\n\n

Amphibians evolved over 370 million years ago<\/a> in the late Devonian period. These were dominant during Carboniferous and Permian periods. <\/p>\n\n\n\n