Reptiles represent a fascinating chapter in the history of Earth. They have evolved and survived to secure an environmental niche perhaps more far reaching than any other higher life form, ranging from the depths of the sea to the most extreme conditions on land. Reptiles are used both practically and symbolically throughout the world in various arenas from science and medicine to religion, art, and cultural practices. Yet, despite their wide influence on modern society, reptiles remain a secretive and feared member of the animal world. This is not deserved when one considers the absolute rarity of adverse events related to them compared to those associated with other domesticated animals (for example, serious and fatal falls from horses or attacks from neighborhood dogs far outnumber serious reptile related injuries). With that said, it is encouraging to see the increasing popularity of reptiles in the pet trade, the widening disbursement of knowledge related to the biological, medical, and captive care issues of herpetology, and the heightened awareness of the effects of habitat destruction on local populations.
A Voice from the Past
"THE AFFINITIES of all the beings of the same class have sometimes been represented by a great tree. I believe this simile largely speaks the truth. The green and budding twigs may represent existing species; and those produced during each former year may represent the long succession of extinct species . . . The limbs divided into great branches, and these into lesser and lesser branches, were themselves once, when the tree was small, budding twigs; and this connexion of the former and present buds by ramifying branches may well represent the classification of all extinct and living species in groups subordinate to groups . . . From the first growth of the tree, many a limb and branch has decayed and dropped off, and these lost branches of various sizes may represent those whole orders, families, and genera which have now no living representatives, and which are known to us only from having been found in a fossil state . . . As buds give rise by growth to fresh buds, and these, if vigorous, branch out and overtop on all a feebler branch, so by generation I believe it has been with the Tree of Life, which fills with its dead and broken branches the crust of the earth, and covers the surface with its ever branching and beautiful ramifications" (Darwin, 1859).