List of reptiles of Mexico
[1] The reptiles of Mexico are grouped into 3 orders and 35 families, and include snakes, lizards, crocodilians and turtles.
Turtles: Cheloniidae · Dermochelyidae · Chelydridae · Dermatemydidae · Emydidae · Geoemydidae · Kinosternidae Crocodilians: Crocodylidae · Alligatoridae Lizards: Anguidae · Diploglossidae · Gekkonidae · Eublepharidae · Phyllodactylidae · Sphaerodactylidae · Helodermatidae · Corytophanidae · Iguanidae · Phrynosomatidae · Dactyloidae · Scincidae · Teiidae · Gymnophthalmidae · Xantusiidae · Xenosauridae Snakes: Anomalepididae · Leptotyphlopidae · Typhlopidae · Boidae · Loxocemidae · Colubridae · Dipsadidae · Natricidae · Elapidae · Viperidae See also Notes References Mexico has a total of 54 species of turtle, grouped into 7 families and 20 genera.
Unlike most sea turtles, leatherbacks are often found in the colder waters of temperate zones.
It is a nocturnal, aquatic turtle that lives in large rivers and lakes in Central America, from southern Mexico to northern Honduras.
Its flattened shell can reach a length of 65 cm and is generally gray or almost black in color.
They live most of the time in ponds, reservoirs and rivers, coming to land when they have to find suitable places to lay their eggs.
They are mostly small turtles that inhabit bodies of water with soft, muddy bottoms with an abundance of vegetation.
All members of the family are carnivores and feed on crustaceans, aquatic insects, mollusks, annelids, amphibians, small fish and sometimes carrion.
This family includes 14 species of large semi-aquatic reptiles that inhabit tropical areas of the world.
Crocodiles tend to congregate in freshwater habitats, such as rivers, lakes, wetlands, and sometimes brackish water.
They are ambush hunters who usually wait for their prey, generally fish or land animals, to approach, before attacking them.
They feed mainly on vertebrates such as fish, reptiles and mammals, and sometimes invertebrates such as mollusks and crustaceans, depending on the species.
Species of the Anguinae subfamily are characterized by leg atrophy, despite the fact that they are not directly related to snakes or amphisbaenae, as this is a notable case of evolutionary convergence.
[3] Orden: Squamata · Familia: Diploglossidae Order: Squamata · Family: Gekkonidae Geconids or geckos (Gekkonidae) are a family of scaly sauropsids (reptiles), which includes small to medium-sized species found in temperate and tropical climates around the world.
They are nocturnal, with large eyes and equipped with vertical lobed pupils that allow an extraordinary margin of variation in their opening.
Many species have sticky pads on the soles of their feet that allow them to climb smooth vertical surfaces and even navigate roofs.
The family consists of two species native to the southwestern United States, Mexico and Guatemala, which prefer semiarid habitats.
Order: Squamata · Family: Iguanidae The iguanids (Iguanidae) are a family of lizards whose distribution extends from the southern United States, Central America to Paraguay, and from the Caribbean islands to the Galapagos Islands and Fiji.
They often have a dewlap that helps regulate body temperature, and dorsal spines that are more pronounced in males than in females.
Its range includes southern Canada, the United States, Mexico and Central America.
Adult males exhibit a brightly colored fold of skin in the gular region.
Order: Squamata · Family: Teiidae The teiids (Teiidae) are a family of lizards with elongated bodies, well-developed limbs, provided with granular dorsal scales, large rectangular ventral plates and large plates on the head.
They are terrestrial and diurnal, and mainly insectivorous, although some species also feed on a small amount of plant matter.
They live in a wide variety of habitats - including desert, mountains, and rainforest - throughout Central and South America.
It has a triangular head, a fairly robust cylindrical body, a little flattened dorsoventrally in the posterior region; short and conical tail.
The eyes are small; The scales are wide and smooth, all similar except for a slightly elongated ventral row.
Outwardly, terrestrial elapids are similar to colubrids; Almost all of them have a long, thin body, a head covered with large scales and eyes with round pupils.
Sea snakes, which are also elapids, have adapted to marine life in different ways and to varying degrees.
Their characteristics may include laterally flattened bodies and rudder tails for swimming, as well as the ability to excrete salt.
They have a loreal pit, a hole on each side of the head between the eye and the nostril; It is a thermoreceptor organ that is very sensitive to temperature variations and is used to detect warm-blooded prey.
