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What are the differences between mammals and reptiles?
Answer:
There are some characteristics that are unique to mammals: hair, sweat glands, mammary glands, and the neocortex in the brain; reptiles lack all of those features and have scales in place of hair. Many of them are also poisonous.
On other grounds, most reptiles have a three-chamber heart, except crocodiles, who have a four-chamber heart like all mammals. Also, reptiles are ovoviviparous or aviparous (they lay eggs) unlike mammals, which are viviparous (gives birth to live young). A notable exception in the platypus, who lays eggs but is a mammal (a monotreme to be precise).
Reptiles are ectothermic ("cold-blooded"), unlike endothermic ("warm-blooded")mammals, which means they are dependent on environmental heat sources and have relatively low metabolic rates. Mammals, on the other hand, have fast metabolisms. This means that they use up energy much faster than reptiles and tend to live a shorter life (size for size) and move around much more whereas a reptile will often slows its metabolism and wait for food to come near it instead of the energy-costly mammalian tactic of looking for food. Inly one mammal is poisonous, again its the platypus.
Mammals have the advantage of being able to live in a wider variety of habitats than reptiles due to their warm blood; which means that they can keep themselves at the optimum temperature (as long as food is available) in a wider range of habitats.
Finally mammals are synapsids, while living reptiles are either anapsids or diapsids
On other grounds, most reptiles have a three-chamber heart, except crocodiles, who have a four-chamber heart like all mammals. Also, reptiles are ovoviviparous or aviparous (they lay eggs) unlike mammals, which are viviparous (gives birth to live young). A notable exception in the platypus, who lays eggs but is a mammal (a monotreme to be precise).
Reptiles are ectothermic ("cold-blooded"), unlike endothermic ("warm-blooded")mammals, which means they are dependent on environmental heat sources and have relatively low metabolic rates. Mammals, on the other hand, have fast metabolisms. This means that they use up energy much faster than reptiles and tend to live a shorter life (size for size) and move around much more whereas a reptile will often slows its metabolism and wait for food to come near it instead of the energy-costly mammalian tactic of looking for food. Inly one mammal is poisonous, again its the platypus.
Mammals have the advantage of being able to live in a wider variety of habitats than reptiles due to their warm blood; which means that they can keep themselves at the optimum temperature (as long as food is available) in a wider range of habitats.
Finally mammals are synapsids, while living reptiles are either anapsids or diapsids
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