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.
Species Numbers by Higher Taxa:
Feb 2008 |
Jan 2011 |
Feb 2012 |
Feb 2013 |
Feb 2014 |
|
|
Amphisbaenia (amphisbaenians) |
181 |
181 |
184 |
184 |
|
|
Sauria (lizards) |
5,461 |
5,634 |
5,796 |
5,914 |
|
|
Serpentes (snakes) |
3,315 |
3,378 |
3,432 |
3,458 |
|
|
Testudines (turtles) |
317 |
327 |
328 |
327 |
|
|
Crocodylia (crocodiles) |
24 |
25 |
25 |
25 |
|
|
Rhynchocephalia (tuataras) |
2 |
2 |
1 |
1 |
|
|
Reptile species total |
9,300 |
9,547 |
9,766 |
9,909 |
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)