The Reptile Database

News

2012-01-28

A new release of database - total of 9,547 species, 29,259 literature references and more then 5,200 photos representing more then 2,117 species.

2011-08-27

The new version of search engine. We tried to improve search capabilities and on the other hand, we introduced a simple full-text search. More info in search tips. Let us know, what do you think about it through our contact form.

2011-08-01

New release features a total of 9,413 species and 2,929 subspecies. 55 species have been described in 2011 (+ 36 since May release). 28,559 references in database (+ 339).

Overview

The Reptile Database is a taxonomic database that provides basic information about all living reptile species, such as turtles, snakes, lizards, and crocodiles, as well as tuataras and amphisbaenians, but does not include dinosaurs.

Currently there are about 9,200 species and an additional 3,200 subspecies making reptiles the largest vertebrate group after fish (~25,000 species) and birds (~10,000 species), and significantly larger than mammals (~5,000 species) or amphibians (~6,000 species).

The Reptile Database provides taxonomic information for the Catalogue of Life and the Encyclopedia of Life. Our taxonomic information has also been used by GenBank and many other resources and is the only comprehensive reptile database on the web.

The reptile database can be used to find all species within a certain geographic area (e.g. all snakes of Egypt). Its collection of more than 2,500 images allow users to identify a species or at least get an idea how the species or genus may look like. Nearly 25,000 references provide a guide to further information.