Herpetology

Herpetology deals with the identification and life science of different specimens of amphibians and reptiles. The official taxonomy list used for this event is posted on www.soinc.org/events/herpetology. In this article, I will mainly deal with the life science portion of this event, as identification is a skill that is best learned on your own. While field guides may help with learning how to ID specimens, different techniques for ID and different studying methods will work for different people.

Amphibians VS Reptiles
While most amphibians are tied to water throughout their lives, reptiles of many species generally entirely terrestrial. The adaptational differences of each represent this difference.

Reproduction
Fertilization - the joining of egg and sperm
 * Internal Fertilization - fertilized within female's reproductive tract
 * External Fertilizaqion - fertilized outside body

Reptilian Patterns of Reproduction - division of reproduction methods by how long eggs stay within female and in how eggs are provided with nutrition
 * Oviparity - female's tract encloses egg in tough shell which is then deposited
 * Ovovivoparity - eggs retained in female's body before being either laid shortly before hatching or hatching within body
 * Viviparity - shell is not formed around egg and young mature in female's body; nutrients often delevered by placenta

Behavior
Many behavioral aspects of reptiles and amphibians are due to their thermoregulation strategies. Each of these species are ectotherms (cold-blooded and gaining heat from environment rather than metabolism). This energy saving strategy leads to several behavioral adaptations. Other reasons to be diurnal include easier sight and communication as well as more common prey in some habitats. Reasons to be nocturnal include less competition for food and fewer predators in some habitats.
 * Activity - Many ectotherms have optimum temperatures of function (due to the optimum temperatures of enzymes), this results in many organisms in cooler habitats being most active in midday and many organisms in desert habitats to be more nocturnal. The other pros and cons of diurnal/nocturnal are listed below.


 * Dormancy - During cold or dry seasons, some organisms 'hibernate' in order to retain energy.

Other aspects of behavior good for review are mating rituals, how they interact with other organisms (aggressive or passive), and how they obtain food.

Helpful Hints
1) If they allow a binder or field guide, make your own, and know where everything in it is.

2) Be able to identify quickly, you should be able to do most identification without the binder

3) Do not rely on your field guide, memorize as much as you can

these are just some helpful tips for competing, someone else needs to add good information and links