The crawling animals are also known as reptiles and these animals tend to belong to the class of Reptilia. The animals that are included in this group are the air-breathing vertebrates that have epidermal scales covering the different parts of their bodies. Apart from that, these animals also tend to have an internal process of fertilization that occurs in their body.
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Some of the major examples of the living crawling examples are snakes, crocodiles, turtles, and other reptile forms. Reptile is the term that is obtained from the Latin Language and the literal translation of the word means “to crawl”. Hence, reptiles are the most commonly known animals belonging to the crawling animals chart.
Definition of Crawling Animals or Reptiles
Reptiles can be defined as the vertebrate organisms that belong to a particular class such as lizards, snakes, tortoises, turtles, crocodiles, and much more. One of the distinguishing properties of these organisms is the presence of the dry and scaly skin that they have. These organisms also tend to lay eggs that have a hard shell on the land.
Classification And Examples of Crawling Animals
According to the crawling animals chart, there are 4 different types of animals that tend to crawl.
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Turtles:
These animals tend to have little or no changes in their appearance when compared to the reptiles of other categories. From their formation about 200 million years ago, turtles haven’t been through many changes. These animals tend to have a shell that acts as a protective cover for their body. The name of the shell is carapace. This shell, aside from providing protection, also acts as camouflage. The turtle’s outer shell is created with scutes and several bone structures make up the inner shell.
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The Squamata:
These are the reptiles that include snakes and lizards. Some of the lizards belong to the group of small crawling animals. However, it is considered to be one of the largest orders of reptiles. There are so many variations in the species and the organisms that are included in this order.
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The Crocodilian:
In this particular group, alligators and crocodiles are included. These organisms are predatory and large in size. They are also semi-aquatic in nature. Their bodies are built in a solid manner and they have flattened snouts along with a large tail.
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The Tuatara:
In this particular group, the animals that have lizard-like characteristics are discussed. The crawling animals name belonging to the ‘tuatara’ group takes inspiration from the Maori language. The literal translation of the word means ‘peak on top of the beaks’. Only one organism is included in the list and it is the Sphenodon punctatus.
Features of Crawling Animals
Since there are so many different animals that are included in the crawling animals list, it is important to know the characteristics that these animals tend to have. Here, the article tends to mention some main characteristics that are possessed by the organisms that belong to the group of animals that tend to crawl.
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All the reptiles and animals that are included in this particular list are the ones that tend to lay their eggs on the land. This list also includes the animals that are semi-aquatic and aquatic in nature.
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The reproduction process in most of the animals that have a crawling nature or reptiles is internalized. The process of internal fertilization means that the entire sexual fertilization will take place internally. While some of these organisms might lay their eggs on the land, there are some who will give birth to their young ones.
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Another one of the main characteristics of the animals that tend to crawl is that they have scaly and impermeable skin. One of the most common examples of such a type of skin can be seen in the snakes that crawl around. These organisms move to the land because the skin types they have aren’t suitable enough to facilitate the process of respiration under the water.
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The reptiles or the crawling animals name was given to the organisms that belong to the Reptilia group. These organisms depend on the surroundings of their environment in order to adjust their body temperature. Since these animals are ectotherms, the temperature according to the climate has an effect on the body temperature of the reptiles. This provides an advantage to the reptiles because they aren’t dependent on the metabolic energy that is generated from the body heat. Hence, the temperature of their bodies keeps on changing according to the environment that they live in.
Conclusion
The crawling animals name has been given to a specific group of animals that belong to the class Reptilia. This class of animals includes lizards, snakes, crocodiles, alligators, turtles, and some other species of organisms. The name ‘crawling animal’ is given to them because they have the ability to crawl on land surfaces. There are different characteristics that these animals have such as scaly, impermeable skin, and internal fertilization.