Turtles
There are no true tortoises
native to Australia, but some of the older reptiles books refer to
Australian freshwater turtles as tortoises
Marine turtles
Six of the world's seven species of marine turtle inhabit
Australia waters (the only marine turtle in the world not to do
so is Kemp's Ridley sea turtle
of eastern North America
The flatback turtle (Natator depressus)
nests
nowhere
else
in
the
world except the north coast of Australia, but forages also around New
Guinea and Indonesia
Other marine turtles in Australian waters are the green turtle,
hawksbill, Olive Ridley, loggerhead and leatherback, all of which we
share with other warm world regions.
All marine turtles belong to the family Cheloniidae except the
leatherback (Dermochelys coriacea;
family
Dermochelyidae).
This
turtle
has an unusual leathery shell with
many small bones embedded as a mosaic within in it.
The photo shows a turtle sculpture at the Gold Coast.
Freshwater turtles (Chelidae and Carettochelyidae)
The odd-looking pig-nosed turtle (Carettochelys
insculpta) is endemic to northern Australia and southern New
Guinea (i.e it is found nowhere else in the world) and is the the only
surviving member of an ancient family of turtles
(Carettochelyidae). If conservation threats continue, even this
one may not survive much longer. It has a pig-like snout, eats fish,
fruit, insects and a variety of other foods, and propels itself through
the water with large, flattened fore-legs.
All our other
freshwater turtles are in the family Chelidae, a family
we share with New Guinea and neigbouring islands and (from our ancient
Gondwana connections) South America. They turn their heads sideways
when fitting their necks back into their shells (turtles of a different
family in Africa also do this). They propel themselves through the
water with powerful hind limbs.
They are found in watercourses throughout the mainland, and
include:
- Long-necked (or snake-necked) turtles - Chelodina spp. An ancient group,
and the world's longest-necked turtles, some with necks as
long as their shells
- Short-necked turtles - Emydura
spp., much shorter necks
- Snapping turtles - closely related to Emydura, including the saw-shelled
turtle of the northeast, with saw-like edge to their shells
- Western swamp turtle - Pseudemydura.
While the other three genera are widespread in Australia,
this is a genus, indeed a whole subfamily, with just one species found
only in one tiny area in Western Australia
Snakes
NOTE: Some Australian snakes are known to be amongst the most
highly venomous
in the world (including THE most venomous, the inland taipan), but this
does not make them
the most dangerous (not that we'd suggest handling them, or not being
careful when walking in long grass - there IS danger, but relatively
speaking it is over-rated)
Families of snakes in Australia include:
Front-fanged snakes
These include all our dangerous snakes, but a lot that are not
dangerous as well.
Even those which are regarded as dangerous should not cause the kind of
paranoia sometimes seen. They know we're too big to eat, so they don't
stalk us the way a saltwater crocodile or a shark might, and usually
move quickly out of our way if we gently let them know we're coming.
Rear-fanged snakes
Pythons
Pythons are nonvenomous snakes closely related to boas, and are
found
in Africa, Asia and Australia. Australia has 10 species, all of which
kill their prey not by venom but by constricting, coiling around the
animal and tightening their grip every time it exhales until it
suffocates. They mostly feed on birds and mammals, and have
heat-sensing pits near the mouth to detect their prey. The woma and the
black-headed python are feed mostly on reptiles, which are
usually at a similar temperature to their surroundings, and these
species lack the heat-sensing pits. Partly because of this lack they
are thought to be the world's most primitive pythons.
The best-known Australian python is the carpet snake (pictured to
right), found in a variety of habitats from rainforest to semi-arid
woodlands, across the northern and eastern parts of Australia, as well
as southwestern Australia and also New Guinea. It is also one of the
most popular snakes in captivity, and grows to about 3 metres.
Blind
Snakes
These harmless little fellows spend most of their time below the
surface of the ground, seeking termites and ants to feed on. They in
turn are eaten by bandy-bandy snakes. At first sight they look a bit
like a large earthworm. The family is found in most of the world's
warmer regions.
File snakes
A family with just three aquatic species, from southeast Asia to far
north Australia. Australia has just one species.
Lizards
There are 5 families of lizards in Australia:
- skinks (Scincidae),
- dragons (Agamidae),
- monitors (Varanidae - locally
called 'goannas'),
- geckos (Gekkonidae) and
- flap-footed lizards
(Pygopodidae - also called
legless lizards or snake-lizards, found only in Australia and New
Guinea)
We do NOT have iguanas, although some of our dragons look a bit like
them (and are in fact a related family), and some people erroneously
assume 'goanna' means 'iguana'.
Skinks
Australia has more skinks than any other country, and there are
more
skink species in Australia than any other kind of lizard.
They are usually smooth-bodied (exceptions include shingleback and
spiny
skink).
The scales on their heads are in a mirror-image pattern (hard to
see on the little skinks that scamper up walls or dive under the lead
litter as walkers approach in a forest, but easier to see on the large
skinks such as the blue-tongue) - they share this bilateral symmetry
with flap-footed lizards.
Our largest skink is the land mullet, looking like a big black shiny
fish out of water, found in the rainforests.
Dragons
Bumpy, spiny or crested lizards in Australia are usually dragons
(although a few skinks are 'bumpy' - especially the shingleback)
This is our second largest family of lizards.
A few examples are:
- The famous frill-necked lizard is a dragon, and like many
dragons
often runs on two legs
- The extraordinary thorny devil, with its bizarre
appearance and
excellent adaptation to desert life
- The bearded dragon, xxxx
- The eastern water dragon is often seen in eastern coastal
areas,
including public parks and along the edges of rivers and creeks, which
it will often plunge into if disturbed
Monitors (goannas)
These are our largest lizards. The Komodo dragon of Indonesia is
monitor, not a dragon, and Australia used to have a monitor even
larger, still here when Aboriginals first arrived.
Geckos
Geckos are small nocturnal lizards found in all the world's
warmer
regions, using remarkable toes with millions of tiny hairlike stuctures
to scurry up walls and even across ceilings in pursuit of insects. They
have no eyelids, so sometimes lick their eyes to clean them.
Flap-footed
lizards
This is an exclusively Australian/ New Guinea family of lizards
- but
closely related to the gecko family.
They are sometimes mistaken for snakes, but remnants of hind legs can
still be seen as small flaps, they have external ear openings, and
their tongues are not forked, although not all of those characteristics
can readily be seen in some species. There are also legless
skinks, but a perusal of the possible spices of flap-footed
lizard in any locality should soon distinguish them.
Books and other
information
The most comprehensive book for identification of reptiles and
amphibians in Australia has always been Cogger, H. Reptiles &
Amphibians of Australia, with periodic updates but the latest
edition (2000) is out of print and hard to find
We now also have '
A
complete guide to reptiles of Australia', second edition by Steve
Wilson and Gerry Swan (2008)
A journal for herpetologists and reptile keepers on Australia is
Reptiles
Australia Magazine
Check out this site for
turtles
Here's an extensive list of references on
snake venom
and snakebites
Australian Museum
reptiles page
Also see the
Australian
Herpetology Society
