Reptiles are sexual animals and are the group that introduced internal fertilization to the vertebrate line. Thus, in a manner of speaking, they laid the foundation for the family unit in higher vertebrates, and from this came human society itself, with all its excitement and troubles. The ancestral amphibians deposited their eggs virtually naked in the water, and fertilized them by simply releasing sperm in the general vicinity. The hazards of such an informal operation to both sperm and egg are obvious. The reptilian egg, however, enters the world already fertilized, and packaged against a certain amount of environmental adversity. One need only compare the dozen or so eggs laid by the average lizard with the thousands laid by toads to see the great economy the new method has brought.
But even an egg with a shell is delicate. It can incubate successfully only within a narrow range of conditions of temperature, humidity and concealment. It is thus not surprising to find that a few reptiles have independently hit upon the recourse that we think of as one of the main attributes of the mammals – that of producing living young. All the live-bearing reptiles of modern times are lizards and snakes.
His mate can have access to the sperm packet. Lying quietly, the male allows her to maneuver her vent over the sperm packet and take it up in the lips of her cloaca. The mating process takes approximately half an hour, after which the female is released by the male and both go their separate ways.
The time from fertilization to the birth of the larvae is about ten months. Sometimes the sperm packet may be retained in the cloaca for several months, even though the winter, so that eggs may be fertilized at a more favorable time. The larvae develop full term in the eggs while still in the body of the parent, who will seek out a suitable body of water as soon as birth becomes imminent. Only cool streams and ponds in half shadow are selected. The female will search for a suitable shallow spot into which she can release up to 50 hatching eggs or newly hatched larvae. In certain cases, especially in the southern part of the range or where free water is scarce, the larvae may be retained right through metamorphosis and tiny replicas of the adults may be deposited.
At birth, the larvae are about 2.5 cm (1 in) in length and are colored somewhere between yellowish gray and brownish black. The body is usually speckled with little yellow spots, with a larger one at the base of each leg; the latter spot is a trademark of S. salamandra larvae and is not present in the larvae of related species.
Reptiles are sexual animals and are the group that introduced internal fertilization to the vertebrate line. Thus, in a manner of speaking, they laid the foundation for the family unit in higher vertebrates, and from this came human society itself, with all its excitement and troubles. The ancestral amphibians deposited their eggs virtually naked in the water, and fertilized them by simply releasing sperm in the general vicinity. The hazards of such an informal operation to both sperm and egg are obvious. The reptilian egg, however, enters the world already fertilized, and packaged against a certain amount of environmental adversity. One need only compare the dozen or so eggs laid by the average lizard with the thousands laid by toads to see the great economy the new method has brought.
But even an egg with a shell is delicate. It can incubate successfully only within a narrow range of conditions of temperature, humidity and concealment. It is thus not surprising to find that a few reptiles have independently hit upon the recourse that we think of as one of the main attributes of the mammals – that of producing living young.
A fertile sea turtle lays round in a hole it has dug in warm, incubating sand of Australia’s Great barrier Reef. When about 100 eggs are laid, it will cover the hole and depart. During one breeding season a mature female will deposit from two to five clutches.
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Among different reptiles , fertilization is scheduled differently and at different times, with the respect to the very time , timing and calendar events of nesting and nesting behavior and behaviors. In many , if not most species , this tends to occur , as might well be expected , just before the time periods and time periods when the actual eggs are laid. However in some species , the sperm must amazingly live on in the reproductive tract of the females, and continue thus to fertilize eggs months or even years and years after copulation activities have taken place – sometimes long ago in the past time periods.
The longest known time periods , of such deferment and deferments of fertilization activities are four years , for the diamondback terrapin of the southeastern areas of the United States – the USA. and five years in the case and cases of the tropical American cat-eye snake. The green turtle, which evidently and apparently mates only in the sea , off the nesting area and nesting beach areas, often does so only after the female has gone ashore and laid her egg and egg clutch. Since a given female makes her migration to the nesting ground only once in three or rarely in two years, it thus seems more than probable and indeed likely , that sperm itself must be stored , in a in-vivo condition , between that length of time period and periods between the nesting journeys.
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All reptiles practice internal fertilization . In all modern forms , except for the tautara , the male has an organ turned outside in , in the base and basal areas of the tail area , and everted through the opening of the cloaca during erection. In the tautara the and this transfer of sperm is accomplished by bringing the genital openings into contact as in birds and avian creatures. Perhaps this is a left over vestigial remnant of dinosaur harbingers. This of course was probably the means and mechanism as the method used by ancestral reptiles - it is most clear in any case and cases , that the penis and penises had separate origins in turtles, crocodiles and mammals , on the one hand , and in most lizards and snakes on the other side.
Thus , male lizards as well as snakes , not just one , but indeed a full pair and pairing of what are essentially hollow structures called or referred to as “hemipenes” , which make up what are in effect “copulatory” organs . Located as amazingly they are , in the tail areas , behind the opening of the cloaca , these hemipenes often give the tail of the male reptiles , a thicker more gradually contoured tail than that of the females . In many species the sex of the reptile can be distinguished by this difference – which is sometimes rather slight in some.
A “groove” serves as the channel for the sperm . This groove extends from the opening of the sperm duct extends from the opening of the sperm duct along the inner wall ( which of course serves as the outer wall during the erection period / periods), of the hemipenis, and the surface may be pleated or set with actual spines which keep it in place in the oviduct of the female during mating. Either one of the hemipenes may be used , but only one and only one. The hemipene nearest to the female is everted and protruded from the cloaca during the erectile period . This is brought into effect by both a combination and combinations of muscular action and muscular actions and distension of the very walls with blood and blood fluids.
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