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Very Short Introductions #596
Reptiles: A Very Short Introduction
For millions of years reptiles have walked, crawled, and slithered over the face of our Earth. From the mighty dinosaurs who dominated the land, the pterosaurs who took to the air, and the marine adapted ichthyosaurs, to the living reptiles today such as the lizards, snakes, crocodiles, and turtles, plus the single species of tuatara in New Zealand, reptiles have come in all shapes and sizes.In this Very Short Introduction Tom Kemp discusses the adaptations reptiles made to first leave the sea and colonise the land in dry conditions, such as their waterproof skin, their ability to expel almost dry waste products, their efficient use of external heat for maintaining their body temperature, and the amniotic egg that is laid and develops on dry land. Considering the different living groups of reptiles today, Kemp then describes how their respective bodies are adapted fortheir different ways of life, from snake feeding patterns to the way crocodiles breathe. Finally, Kemp assesses the threat of extinction to reptile species due to over-exploitation, habitat destruction, and climate change, and considers what can be done.ABOUT THE The Very Short Introductions series from Oxford University Press contains hundreds of titles in almost every subject area. These pocket-sized books are the perfect way to get ahead in a new subject quickly. Our expert authors combine facts, analysis, perspective, new ideas, and enthusiasm to make interesting and challenging topics highly readable.
160 pages, Kindle Edition
Published January 17, 2019
7 people are currently reading
167 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 11 of 11 reviews
July 12, 2025
I have listened to this book as I was falling asleep, so... take that into consideration if you want to take anything from this review, I guess 😅
As a falling asleep book this was quite good, it was a bit dry but there were interesting bits to keep my attention. Some chapters might have been a bit too creepy for listening before sleep - the crocodiles chapters especially for me. But I don't find snakes especially frightening (I have a respect for them, not phobia) so do with that what you will.
As a non-fiction book, my opinion is much harder to give for obvious reasons 😂 I think it's a pretty solid introduction if you want basics, but don't pick this up if you want something actually interesting. There is only a little space to spend at each topic and multiple times I was like "oh, I wish he mentioned XY!" because he got sooo close to that. Also, a couple times, I was genuinely intrigued by something the author mentioned (crocodiles apparently can sometimes run bipedally?! WTF?!) and I wanted to know more and then he changed topic *sigh* Well...
I will also say that this book quite stretched my vocabulary (chelonians!) so it was good for that.
Anyway, I'm glad I read this even though I definitely could have lived without reading it. Kind of scratched my dinosaur itch, but I think I'll need to pick up my dinosaur non-fiction soonish anyway. Or dinosaur fiction, but I am having trouble finding something on that front that I want to read. (Will take recs if someone has any.)
As a falling asleep book this was quite good, it was a bit dry but there were interesting bits to keep my attention. Some chapters might have been a bit too creepy for listening before sleep - the crocodiles chapters especially for me. But I don't find snakes especially frightening (I have a respect for them, not phobia) so do with that what you will.
As a non-fiction book, my opinion is much harder to give for obvious reasons 😂 I think it's a pretty solid introduction if you want basics, but don't pick this up if you want something actually interesting. There is only a little space to spend at each topic and multiple times I was like "oh, I wish he mentioned XY!" because he got sooo close to that. Also, a couple times, I was genuinely intrigued by something the author mentioned (crocodiles apparently can sometimes run bipedally?! WTF?!) and I wanted to know more and then he changed topic *sigh* Well...
I will also say that this book quite stretched my vocabulary (chelonians!) so it was good for that.
Anyway, I'm glad I read this even though I definitely could have lived without reading it. Kind of scratched my dinosaur itch, but I think I'll need to pick up my dinosaur non-fiction soonish anyway. Or dinosaur fiction, but I am having trouble finding something on that front that I want to read. (Will take recs if someone has any.)
November 27, 2022
Reptiles: A Very Short Introduction (2019) by T.S. Kemp describes the evolutionary history and current status of these fascinating creatures. The chapter titles are self-explanatory (although "Chelonians" may not be quite as familiar as the equivalent common names of turtles and tortoises):
Contents
List of illustrations
1 What is a reptile?
2 History of reptiles
3 Lizards
4 Snakes
5 Crocodiles
6 Chelonians
7 The future of the world’s reptiles
Further reading
Index
Reptiles once "ruled" the Earth, in the sense of being the dominant large-bodied creatures on the land, in the sea, and in the air. After their heyday during the Mezozoic Era came to an end, the surviving reptiles soldiered on, but were pushed out of numerous niches by the newly ascendant mammals and birds. However, reptiles continued to get the last laugh by frequently preying on the warm-blooded upstarts. Birds are now considered to be feathered dinosaurs, but they were traditionally seen as distinct from today's reptiles, being warm-blooded like mammals. This created some awkwardness after the rise of cladistics (grouping related species together by common ancestry) when paleontologists worked out that birds diverged from reptiles much later than mammals did. Birds and mammals are more widely separated on the phylogenetic tree than early taxonomists believed. But the book sticks with the familiar notion of treating birds as being distinct from reptiles. So our feathered friends will have to await their own VSI.
The writing style is clear and understandable. The book contains illustrations for some of the reptiles it describes, but the visual coverage is a far cry from larger photo-oriented wildlife books, not to mention your typical wildlife documentary by David Attenborough and others. Speaking of documentary programs, after (or while) reading this book you'll want to watch (or re-watch) Attenborough's classic Life in Cold Blood series and perhaps read the accompanying book. YouTube also has video clips of many species mentioned in the book. For example, Kemp mentions the multi-colored Augrabies flat lizard which you can view in this clip from Attenborough's Planet Earth. And while Kemp tells us about galloping crocodiles, you'll need to search them up on YouTube to get the full effect.
I did not notice a single typographic error in the book, but I did see a peculiar error of fact, referring to the Chicxulub impactor. That's the asteroid or comet which may have caused or contributed to the end-Cretaceous mass extinction which obliterated the non-avian dinosaurs, pterosaurs, and large marine reptiles such as mosasaurs, ichthyosaurs, and plesiosaurs. When writing about competing theories for the cause(s) of this mass extinction, Kemp writes:
According to Wikipedia, "The impactor's velocity was estimated at 20 kilometers per second (12 mi/s)." The speed of light, in contrast, is "299,792,458 metres per second (approximately 300,000 kilometres per second; 186,000 miles per second; 671 million miles per hour)." I'm not sure how Kemp got from 20 to half of 300,000. Had the impactor struck the Earth with such speed, it would have carried considerably more kinetic energy, given that KE is proportional to the square of the speed. As it was, "The kinetic energy of the impact was estimated at 100,000 gigatonnes of TNT (420,000 EJ)." Multiplying that by the square of (150,000/20) would have left a considerably bigger dent.
After telling us what a reptile is, and surveying reptiles' evolutionary history, Kemp takes us through chapters describing today's reptile groups. The book closes with the obligatory discussion of threats to wildlife, chief among which are humans. It's hard to write a book about the natural world without mentioning, at some point, the fact that humans are obliterating it. Kemp perhaps inadvertently illustrates the sheer perniciousness of the problem by first summarizing the threat posed by man-made climate change, and then - incongruously - recommending so-called "ecotourism" as a way to incentivize poor countries to preserve their vanishing biodiversity. For anyone who doesn't grasp the incongruity (perhaps this includes Kemp) I recommend reading How Bad Are Bananas?: The Carbon Footprint of Everything, to develop a little carbon literacy. Nobody saves the planet by burning tonnes of jet fuel to gawk at the last remaining undestroyed bits of it.
Contents
List of illustrations
1 What is a reptile?
2 History of reptiles
3 Lizards
4 Snakes
5 Crocodiles
6 Chelonians
7 The future of the world’s reptiles
Further reading
Index
Reptiles once "ruled" the Earth, in the sense of being the dominant large-bodied creatures on the land, in the sea, and in the air. After their heyday during the Mezozoic Era came to an end, the surviving reptiles soldiered on, but were pushed out of numerous niches by the newly ascendant mammals and birds. However, reptiles continued to get the last laugh by frequently preying on the warm-blooded upstarts. Birds are now considered to be feathered dinosaurs, but they were traditionally seen as distinct from today's reptiles, being warm-blooded like mammals. This created some awkwardness after the rise of cladistics (grouping related species together by common ancestry) when paleontologists worked out that birds diverged from reptiles much later than mammals did. Birds and mammals are more widely separated on the phylogenetic tree than early taxonomists believed. But the book sticks with the familiar notion of treating birds as being distinct from reptiles. So our feathered friends will have to await their own VSI.
The writing style is clear and understandable. The book contains illustrations for some of the reptiles it describes, but the visual coverage is a far cry from larger photo-oriented wildlife books, not to mention your typical wildlife documentary by David Attenborough and others. Speaking of documentary programs, after (or while) reading this book you'll want to watch (or re-watch) Attenborough's classic Life in Cold Blood series and perhaps read the accompanying book. YouTube also has video clips of many species mentioned in the book. For example, Kemp mentions the multi-colored Augrabies flat lizard which you can view in this clip from Attenborough's Planet Earth. And while Kemp tells us about galloping crocodiles, you'll need to search them up on YouTube to get the full effect.
I did not notice a single typographic error in the book, but I did see a peculiar error of fact, referring to the Chicxulub impactor. That's the asteroid or comet which may have caused or contributed to the end-Cretaceous mass extinction which obliterated the non-avian dinosaurs, pterosaurs, and large marine reptiles such as mosasaurs, ichthyosaurs, and plesiosaurs. When writing about competing theories for the cause(s) of this mass extinction, Kemp writes:
The most popular one is that a huge, 10 km meteor travelling at half the speed of light hit the Earth.
According to Wikipedia, "The impactor's velocity was estimated at 20 kilometers per second (12 mi/s)." The speed of light, in contrast, is "299,792,458 metres per second (approximately 300,000 kilometres per second; 186,000 miles per second; 671 million miles per hour)." I'm not sure how Kemp got from 20 to half of 300,000. Had the impactor struck the Earth with such speed, it would have carried considerably more kinetic energy, given that KE is proportional to the square of the speed. As it was, "The kinetic energy of the impact was estimated at 100,000 gigatonnes of TNT (420,000 EJ)." Multiplying that by the square of (150,000/20) would have left a considerably bigger dent.
After telling us what a reptile is, and surveying reptiles' evolutionary history, Kemp takes us through chapters describing today's reptile groups. The book closes with the obligatory discussion of threats to wildlife, chief among which are humans. It's hard to write a book about the natural world without mentioning, at some point, the fact that humans are obliterating it. Kemp perhaps inadvertently illustrates the sheer perniciousness of the problem by first summarizing the threat posed by man-made climate change, and then - incongruously - recommending so-called "ecotourism" as a way to incentivize poor countries to preserve their vanishing biodiversity. For anyone who doesn't grasp the incongruity (perhaps this includes Kemp) I recommend reading How Bad Are Bananas?: The Carbon Footprint of Everything, to develop a little carbon literacy. Nobody saves the planet by burning tonnes of jet fuel to gawk at the last remaining undestroyed bits of it.
May 24, 2020
Audible:This was a very good short intro to reptiles.For kids maybe 10 and up. Jack de Golia was a wonderful narrator.I was given this free review copy audiobook at my request and have voluntarily left this review.'
November 3, 2020
Wow reptiles what's the deal? this book helps but there were some reptiles i wasn't sure about. wow thanks
March 2, 2021
What a great book for someone who knows nearly nothing about reptiles.
September 2, 2021
Lizards. Snakes. Crocodiles. Turtles and tortoises. This Very Short Introduction is an excellent primer on the 10,000 species that make up the Class Reptila.
April 28, 2019
A tightly woven booklet densely packed with interesting information as the titles in this series usually are. From evolutionary history to the biology of the various groups, albeit in brief, yet sufficient enough for a general understanding and overview of this Class of the animal kingdom.
January 13, 2025
Anything you ever wanted to know about reptiles
Fun facts: Some reptiles have 2 peens!
Turtle's shells are made of pieces called Scutes.
I didn't like the dinosaurs portion of this book. I don't think it was very accurate and took alot from outdated studies.
Fun facts: Some reptiles have 2 peens!
Turtle's shells are made of pieces called Scutes.
I didn't like the dinosaurs portion of this book. I don't think it was very accurate and took alot from outdated studies.
March 25, 2025
Crocodiles are the coolest reptile. Chelonians (Turtles/Tortoise) are the only ones that can even hold a candle. The Mata Mata turtle is especially crazy. Did you know lizards have a double penis and nobody knows why?
September 5, 2020
Kind of a rough start, but after the book settled in to discussing individual species, it felt a lot smoother to me. Good read - I learned a lot.
December 15, 2021
Mooi overzicht van de verschillende groepen reptielen en hun voornaamste kenmerken, zowel als een paar markante soorten.
Displaying 1 - 11 of 11 reviews