Species Numbers (as of July 2018)

The tables below give you an idea how many species* of reptiles are known. More than a 100 species have been described in each of the previous years and therefore the real number changes continuously. See The original descriptions of reptiles (and their subspecies) for a historical analysis. Note that currently 1046 reptile species have a total of 2,442 subspecies. Some authors reject the idea of subspecies and either synonymize them with their parent species or consider them as valid species (e.g. Wallach et al. 2014, Snakes of the World).

Species Numbers by Higher Taxa:

Number of families: As of Feb 2018 there are 86 families of reptiles (see our taxonomic overview and the phylogenetic tree of squamates for lists). Note that this number is a bit arbitrary, depending on what is called a family (sometimes a subfamily).

Number of genera: As of Feb 2018 there are 1199 genera of reptiles. See our downloadable spreadsheet for a complete list.

Species Numbers by Family or geographic region:

Please search the database for individual families or country name.

• Map showing the worldwide distribution of reptiles (as of June 2015)

* What exactly is a "species"? A species may contain many individuals of different appearance ("variations") but as long as they interbreed they can exchange genetic information and therefore form a genetic continuum. This biological species concept is increasingly challenged by the "evolutionary species concept" which rather considers populations of very similar specimens as species. As a result, many subspecies have been raised to "full species" status and therefore the number of species increases just because of that.

More information on Species concepts (Wikipedia)