Philadelphia Zoo Visit

On Friday, we were visited by the Philadelphia Zoo. The employee brought different artifacts that were part of the animals and actual animals. We learned that there are four different groupings within reptiles- snakes, turtles/tortoises, lizards and crocodiles/alligators. You can tell that they are reptiles mainly because of their scales. The first artifact was crocodile skin. The difference between a crocodile and an alligator is that alligators are black while crocodiles can be many other colors like tan brown or green, and they have different shaped snouts. Next was the turtle shell and an actual tortoise. The difference between a turtle and a tortoise is that turtles can go in water while tortoises can't. Then she brought out the anaconda skin and an actually snake. Snake's self defense consists of either injecting venom or constricting. Lastly she brought a lizard and a lizard that looked like a snake, called a legless lizard. The only reason why you could tell that the legless lizard was a lizard and not a snake because it had ears, and snakes don't have ears. I enjoyed that experience a lot.