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 for a historical analysis. Note that currently 1085 reptile species have a total of 2516 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:
Feb 2008 |
Jan 2011 |
Feb 2012 |
Feb 2013 |
Aug 2014 |
Aug 2015 |
|
|
Amphisbaenia (amphisbaenians) |
181 |
181 |
184 |
188 |
193 |
|
|
Sauria (lizards) |
5,461 |
5,634 |
5,796 |
5,987 |
6145 |
|
|
Serpentes (snakes) |
3,315 |
3,378 |
3,432 |
3,496 |
3567 |
|
|
Testudines (turtles) |
317 |
327 |
328 |
341 |
341 |
|
|
Crocodylia (crocodiles) |
24 |
25 |
25 |
25 |
25 |
|
|
Rhynchocephalia (tuataras) |
2 |
2 |
1 |
1 |
1 |
|
|
Reptile species total |
9,300 |
9,547 |
9,766 |
10,038 |
10,272 |
Species Numbers by Family or geographic region:
Please search the database for individual families or country name.
* 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)