Sorting animals into scientific groups can look like a secret code at first. It is not that hard, and it is one of the best ways to understand how animals are related. Remember the boxes from the last lesson: Kingdom, Phylum, Class, Order, Family, Genus, Species. All reptiles and amphibians are in the kingdom Animalia (animals) and the phylum Chordata (animals with a backbone or something like one). From there they split into two classes, Reptilia and Amphibia, and then into the big groups called orders. Here is how the numbers looked when this lesson was written. Put together, that is more than 21,700 kinds of reptiles and amphibians alive today. That number changes every year.
This lesson is part of Certified Junior Herpetologist. Enrollment is self-paced, with no deadline to finish (about 30 hours).
