Fun Trivia » Animals » Reptiles and Amphibians

'Proteus anguinus' was so named by Josephus Nicolaus Laurenti in 1768 in "Specimen Medicum, Exhibens Synopsin Reptilium Emendatam cum Experimentis circa Venena". The olm is a single species; however, the black olm 'Proteus anguinus parkelj' is seen as a possible subspecies.

The Dinaric Alps span from Italy to Kosovo, a total of 645 kilometres. Karsts exist below the mountains, which are natural formations in the limestone and dolomite into which the rainwater seeps. The olm is endemic to the waters of Slovenia, the Soča River in Italy, southwestern Croatia, and Bosnia and Herzegovina. Difficulty: Hard.

 

Pyrenees, Caucasus Mountains, Scandinavian Mountains

The average weight of the American alligator (Alligator mississippiensis) is 800 pounds (363 kg) and the average length is 13 feet (4 m), making it one of the largest reptiles on the planet. The Chinese alligator (Alligator sinensis), in contrast, grows to an average of 5 feet (1.5 m) and 80 pounds (36 kg). Chinese alligators remained critically endangered in the early 21st century, while American alligators were not terribly threatened.

American alligators play an important role in maintaining the wetland ecosystem and are found in marshes and swamps from Texas to North Carolina. Chinese alligators are often raised for food, as the Chinese believe that their meat protects against cancer. Difficulty: Hard.

 

Madagascar, Antarctica, Brazil

When this lizard executes the "thermal dance", it moves both its arms and legs. In the African desert, the only available source of water for this lizard is the fog. The fog condenses over the desert at night, and the shovel-snouted lizard stores this water in its body. Difficulty: Hard.

 

Rain dance, Sun dance, Wind dance

Slow worms look very like snakes, but they are in fact legless lizards. One way to identify them is that they have eyelids, which snakes do not. Difficulty: Hard.

 

Snakes, Crocodiles, Worms

At approximately 4300 species, lizards have the most. Snakes are next with about 2700 species. Difficulty: Hard.

 

Snakes, Turtles, Crocodilians

Milk snakes are native to the farm areas of the United States, and were found in barns with cows in them. Farmers would think they were drinking the cow's milk, when in fact they were dining in on some rats.

Milk snakes also have a very nice pattern to them, take a look at one sometime. Difficulty: Hard.

 

They secrete a milky like substance as their venom, They are white like milk, They are the only snake that produces milk

The venomous asp was worshipped in Ancient Egypt. It is said that Cleopatra committed suicide by "clasping an asp to her bosom". Difficulty: Hard.

 

taipan, mamba, copperhead

Bullfrogs are so large, in fact, that some will even eat birds if they can catch them. Difficulty: Hard.

 

Green Frog, Wood Frog, Northern Spring Peeper

It is also the loudest during mating season. Difficulty: Average.

 

Sea Turtle, Chuckwalla, Desert Iguana

Young larvae are born with normal eyes, but they regress after four months and atrophy. This is expected as a result of the habitat they are born into. The eyes do retain a sensitivity to light. Studies have been done that suggest that there are photosensitive cells within the skin as well. Due to the lack of eyesight, the olm's other senses are heightened. Due to the thickened epithelium in the nasal cavity, they are able to determine the size and amount of prey in their surroundings. They possess tastebuds in their mouths and their external gills - one for tasting food and the other for sensing chemicals in the water. Difficulty: Average.

 

Ability to sense colours, Sensing chemicals in water, Peripheral vision

Leopard geckos are native to Afghanistan, Iran, Nepal and the Indian subcontinent. Their preferred habitat is deserts and dry grasslands. Their name comes from their coloration of yellow/orange with dark spots. Difficulty: Easy.

 

Amazon rainforest, Australia, Southern USA and Mexico

It was a salamander. They are similar to lizards; they also possess four short limbs and a very long tail. They can regenerate some body parts. They do not have any scales, feathers or hair on their bodies. They feed on small water insects, fish, frogs or other salamanders. One unique feature of salamanders is the fact that they are completely voiceless animals. Difficulty: Very Easy.

 

Toad, Frog, Crocodile

The Peringuey puff adder moves through the sandy deserts side on, not forward. This minimizes the amount of skin touching the sand, which therefore helps it to stay cool. Difficulty: Average.

 

Surfacewinding action, Parallel action, Horizontal action

Both sexes can also have blue spots on their underbellies. Females are usually browner in colour. Difficulty: Hard.

 

Males have red eyes, females have blue eyes, You cannot, they are hermaphrodites., It is usually the males that you will see, females normally stay underground.

The two species of tuatara live in New Zealand. Once common, all other species became extinct around 60 million years ago. Difficulty: Hard.

 

Amphisbaenians, Crocodilians, Turtles

This lizard is native to Central America, and is loved by all because it can run on water. In mythology and various children's books like Harry Potter, the basilisk can turn people into stone with its gaze, along with being 10 feet and longer. Difficulty: Hard.

 

Water anole, Holy lizard, Roadrunner lizard

The leatherback turtle can be as long as eight feet (2.4m) and weigh over 1900 pounds. As its name suggest its shell is leathery, not hard like most other turtles. Difficulty: Hard.

 

green turtle, loggerhead turtle, alligator snapping turtle

The Eastern gray treefrog and its close relative, Cope's gray treefrog, can change their color from a drab mottled gray to a remarkably bright yellowish green. Difficulty: Hard.

 

Green Frog, Boreal Chorus Frog, Blanchard's Cricket Frog

When annoyed, they secrete a foul-smelling yellowish fluid. Difficulty: Easy.

 

Snapping turtle, Map turtle, Box turtle

The olms are not the only cave salamanders that exist. They have a 'cousin', the spotted-tail cave salamander (Eurycea lucifuga), that lives in eastern United States. Troglobites have all adapted in some way physically to dark cave living.

Troglodytes are broadly defined as people who live in caves, but more specifically associated with prehistoric times.

Trogloxenes are often referred to as 'cave visitors'. These are animals that live close to caves, but not necessarily inside them.

Troglophiles are animals that generally live their life cycles inside a cave, but retain sufficient of their senses to survive above ground. Difficulty: Hard.

 

Troglodyte, Trogloxene, Troglophile

Whereas the anaconda is the heaviest (fattest), the reticulated python is the longest species of snake. The python comes from Southeast Asia and can weight up to 350 pounds. The longest python was recorded at 33 ft (10 m). It can eat a 100-pound (45-kg) pig at one sitting by stretching its jaws up to three times normal size. It is a constrictor, which means it kills by smothering its prey, which it digests over the course of a week or two.

Difficulty: Hard.

The word "caecilian" has been derived from the Latin word "caecus" meaning blind. The smaller caecilians resemble worms, while the larger species that are about 1.5 metres in length resemble snakes. All caecilians have two tentacles on their heads which helps them to detect chemicals dissolved in the air. Difficulty: Hard.

 

A newt, An alligator, A gharial

Thorny devils curl into a ball to protect themselves from predators. Also, these lizards can eat up to 5000 ants at a single time, by using their tongue to pick them up. Difficulty: Hard.

 

Runs away, Buries itself in the sand, Stands there and does nothing

Slow worms are not slow themselves, but prefer slow-moving prey. Although they do eat spiders and other insects, their favourite food are slugs and snails. Difficulty: Hard.

 

Spiders and flies, Beetles (especially ladybirds), Small birds and mammals

The Jacobson's organ is present in the mouths of snakes. The snake's tongue picks up chemicals in the air that are analysed by the Jacobson's organ. Essentially, the snake "tastes" the air. Difficulty: Hard.

 

Sense of sight, Sense of touch, Sense of hearing

I suppose now you are scratching your brow, wondering what this host's obsession is with the caiman? Well, I had one as a pet when I was about 8. Me and my Dad got it for 1 dollar. He went from a cute little guy to 5 ft long. About 8 years later he had a stroke and died. He enjoyed a diet of pork, frozen mice, shrimp, and minnows. He also had some gold fish live with him for a few months.

The caiman in the wild eats soft shelled turtles, rats, lizards, fish, and stuff along that line. They are also hunted for food by the locals, and are supposed to be very tasty.

The tegu is a pretty big lizard, sort of like a monitor lizard.

The gharial is the Indian version of the crocodile. If you have never seen one be amazed, and type it into a search engine right now and be blown away!

Difficulty: Easy.

 

Crocodile, Tegu, Gharial

In spite of their names all are lizards. The slowworm is legless and has a snakelike body. The glass snake is also without legs. It has a very brittle tail that easily breaks off. However, the tail does grow again. The skink is a smallish shiny scaled lizard. Difficulty: Hard.

The Mink Frog, while it does secrete a presumably distasteful substance from its skin, is not poisonous. Difficulty: Hard.

 

Mink Frog, Green Frog, Western Chorus Frog

The Asian water monitor is native to south and southeast Asia. It has a maximum weight of around 100 pounds, just over half of that of the Komodo dragon. Water monitors are carnivores, with diets which include rodents, birds and snakes. Difficulty: Very Easy.

 

Water dragon, Guiana, King cobra

The puff adder is the most common venomous snake in Africa, and it contributes to more deaths in Africa than any other snake on the continent. Its venom contains a hemotoxin, which destroys red blood cells. The bite of the puff adder will do a lot of tissue damage; a victim could lose a hand, an arm, or even a leg. This dangerous snake can make a full-length body strike at lightning speeds of 10 feet per second! Difficulty: Very Easy.

 

velociraptor, sea squab, toady

It was a newt. They are found in North America, Europe and North Asia. They are probably the most well-known examples of creatures that can regenerate eyes, limbs or even the spinal cord! They are unique among amphibians because of their three distinct phases of life cycle: aquatic larval stage, immature terrestrial eft stage and aquatic adult stage. Difficulty: Hard.

 

Caecilian, Earthworm, Gecko

Tuataras are an ancient species of reptile and the only living reptile of the Sphenodontia order. Its name means "peaks on the back" in the Maori language, which refers to the spiny crest running along its back. Tuatara is both the plural and singular form of word; however "tuataras" is also accepted. It is sometimes referred to as a "living fossil", despite the fact that there are a few noticeable differences between modern tuatara and those from the Mesozoic era. There are two species of tuatara: the Northern tuatara and the Brothers Island tuatara. They are nocturnal, however they will bask in the sun occasionally to increase their body temperature. Adults are often cannibalistic and may eat their young. They are a threatened species due to introduced species and habitat loss.

In 1831 the British Museum received an example of the tuatara skull and classified it as a lizard. However, in 1867 a scientist of the British Museum named Albert Günther studied the species closer and discovered noticeable similarities between tuatara and birds, crocodiles and turtles. The order Rhynchocephalia was then proposed to classify it and its ancestors with, but it then became a member of the Sphenodontia order. Difficulty: Hard.

 

Australia, Galapagos Islands, Hawaii

When these lizards are threatened, they sometimes they run away on their hind legs, which gives them the appearance of a miniature T-Rex. Difficulty: Hard.

 

Quickly buries itself in the sand, Hides underneath a rock, Curls itself into a ball

Viviparous animals bear live young. Oviparous animals are egg laying. Difficulty: Hard.

 

Lays eggs, Cold blooded, Warm blooded

I'm sure everyone who selected Komodo dragon is about to send me a vicious note about how I'm wrong. Well I am not. The Komodo dragon is the leader in mass, or weight, but the crocodile monitor, or Papuan monitor can reach the length of 12-14 feet. They are native to Papua New Guinea, and their skin is used to make drums for the locals. They enjoy eating eggs and rat, so if you have one in captivity, I suggest you make sure you have a Denny's near by. Difficulty: Hard.

 

Komodo dragon, Tegu, Marine iguana

Outside of the Americas iguanas are only found in Madagascar, Fiji and Tonga. Difficulty: Hard.

The Eastern American Toad can lay up to 12,000 eggs at once. They are indeed common as I have heard their call coming from my neighbor's tiny, manmade, backyard pond and I live in the middle of the city. Difficulty: Hard.

 

Fowler's Toad, Common Toad, Eastern Spadefoot

The green iguana is also known as the American iguana or common green iguana. It is native to an area stretching from Mexico to Brazil and across the Caribbean, and has also been introduced to such varied places as Florida, Hawaii, Taiwan and Thailand. Difficulty: Average.

 

Red iguana, Golden iguana, Blue iguana

When Komodo dragons open their mouths, they reveal a long yellow-orange tongue, resembling flame. They eat mostly carrion, but they will hunt or ambush live prey.

All reptiles, including dragons, have a three-chambered heart and breathe air into their lungs. Ova (eggs) are fertilized inside the female (just as with birds). Unique to the Komodo dragon, however, and just a few other reptile species, is the ability to reproduce asexually through parthenogenesis, which means that unfertilized ova grow into embryos. This adaptation allows a single female to enter a new island and produce male offspring, establishing a sexually reproducing population. Difficulty: Average.

 

Madagascar, West Indies, Gibraltar

The saltwater crocodile is the largest of all living reptiles, weighing up to 1000 kilograms (2200 pounds) and reaching up to six metres (19.7 feet) long. They are found in the tropical regions in northern Australia, south-east Asia and India. Studies show that they are quite intelligent, but also highly territorial and that, combined with their strength and size, makes them very dangerous to humans.

The crocodilia order is made up of crocodiles, alligators, gharials and caiman. They are closely related to birds and are one of the oldest living orders in the world. The saltwater crocodile is the largest and the smallest type is the Cuvier's dwarf caiman. They are found in North and South America, Asia, Africa and Australia. Difficulty: Hard.

 

Nile crocodile, American alligator, Chinese alligator