Analysis / Somewhere, a Herpetologist Is Crying

Common Examples in Media

Reptiles in General

• Referring to reptiles, especially snakes, as "poisonous", when most times people mean "venomous". There are very few poisonous reptiles anywhere in the world, although there are plenty of poisonous amphibians. Poison causes harm when consumed, tends to exist in an animal's flesh and is generally used as a deterrent to predators, whereas venom is a modified digestive enzyme usually confined to specialized sacs within the animal's mouth/fangs that must be injected directly into the bloodstream to be effective and generally used by predators. Some types of venom can even be safely consumed, though we wouldn't recommend putting that to the test.
• Portraying reptiles and amphibians as one and the same, or using the two terms interchangeably. In reality, reptiles and amphibians are only related superficially, considering that the two lineages separated over 300 million years ago. The closest living relatives to reptiles today are the birds: living dinosaurs, and therefore part of the reptile group themselves. Reptiles are part of the amniote clade, and therefore more related to mammals than amphibians. Crocodylians and especially turtles often get this; they are amphibious, meaning they are at home on land and in water, but they are not true amphibians. In fact, crocodiles are actually far more closely related to birds than they are to other categories of reptiles, let alone to amphibians.
• Portraying predatory reptiles (particularly crocodilians and snakes) as chasing after their prey for long distances. In reality, most carnivorous reptiles are ambush predators, preferring to sneak up on their prey rather than exhaust themselves by running after it. However, crocodiles do follow the migratory patterns of their prey, if the prey migrates. Inverted when the species that are capable of chasing prey are depicted as sluggish due to mammalian bias. Komodo dragons often fall victim to this: they use speed, agility, stamina (superior than bears or big cats and similar to wolves, unusually for a lizard) and actual venom, not ambush tactics or bacteria, to kill prey quickly, instead of over days or weeks as most documentaries claim.
• For that matter, forgetting that herbivorous reptiles even exist. While all snakes and crocodilians are carnivores (Some crocodilians are partial omnivores, supplementing a carnivorous diet with fruits), there are several lizard and turtle species (especially tortoises) that exclusively eat plants.
• Portraying all lizards and snakes as egg-layers. In fact, an entire family of snakes, Viperidae, is named for the fact that they have live birth. Though given that all vipers are venomous and some are deadly (the deadly one Linnaeus and other early taxonomists would have been familiar with is Vipera ammodytes), it's surprising that they got close enough to figure that out and not surprising that most people aren't willing to and just assume vipers lay eggs.
• All reptiles being cold-blooded. Besides the fact dinosaurs (including birds, which means they are technically reptiles) are warm-blooded as are certain groups of extinct reptiles such as pterosaurs and plesiosaurs, some reptiles such as the leatherback sea turtle are capable of regulating body temperature because muscles generate heat when in use (This is true of all animals). Others, such as Argentine tegus, can go through a small endothermic phase, primarily when ready to mate, but the circumstances of this are still being studied.
• The belief that reptiles can survive in extreme heat due to being cold-blooded. In reality they have no real means of releasing heat by themselves as they do not sweat, so their body temperatures can climb to deadly levels if they are unable to reach a cooler spot.
  • Similarly, portraying cold-blooded reptiles as shivering when cold. Shivering is only practiced by warm-blooded animals in order to maintain homeostasis. Ectotherms have no method of trapping body heat as much as releasing it. With that said, mother pythons are capable of shivering to generate heat when incubating their eggs due to having a higher metabolic rate than other snakes.
  • Conversely, cold-blooded reptiles are often believed to be unable to survive in cold climates. This ignores the fact many reptiles live in temperate environments and spend freezing winters by becoming dormant. Even alligators can survive the cold by brumating in frozen ponds, with their snouts sticking above the surface for breathing.
• Having "lizard" and "reptile" being interchangeable terms. Reptiles include snakes (which technically are lizards, ironically), tuataras, crocodilians, turtles, and birds (since they are theropod dinosaurs themselves) as well as lizards. However, in modern (phylogeny-based) classification systems, even the word "reptile" is replaceable with the term "sauropsid", which was coined to include both birds and "traditional" reptiles, and carries less historical baggage.
• Reptile eggs being all hard-shelled like birds. While some reptiles lay eggs like this, many lay soft-shelled eggs.
• The fact that reptiles and amphibians are prime carriers of salmonella is rarely mentioned in fiction. People will commonly touch them (or worse, lick them) with no ill after-effects.
• Lizards and snakes being drawn with visible teeth. Most squamates have their teeth hidden beneath their gums in real life, making them appear toothless. (Exceptions include venomous snakes with gigantic fangs, such as the Gaboon viper.)
• Assuming reptiles as a whole are less intelligent than mammals or other intelligent animals. For one, what are widely regarded as some of the most intelligent animals of all time (even smarter than some great apes) are reptiles, parrots and corvids.^note Birds are reptiles. Besides that, however, more traditional reptiles, particularly crocodilians and large lizards, display high levels of intelligence, with Komodo Dragons being able to count higher than domestic dogs and recognize individual zookeepers in zoos.
• Referring to tuataras as lizards. While they are similar looking and closely related to lizards, tuataras are actually from a separate order known as Rhynchocephalia. Tuataras are differentiated from lizards by possessing two pairs of teeth on the upper jaw instead of just one, and the two fenestrae behind the orbit surrounded by bone.
• Not all reptiles have scales. Scales are a trait exclusive to lepidosaurs i.e. lizards, snakes and tuataras. All other reptiles have scutes or some sort of filament such as feathers.
  • On that note, confusing scutes with scales. Unlike scutes, scales overlap with each other and are shed collectively.
• Reptiles are commonly thought of as limp-tailed, since crocodiles and lizards tend to drag their tails. In reality, that seems to be the result of having a low stance, as reptilian tails are actually held rigid due to the thickness of their caudal vertebrae. When reptiles adopt a higher stance, their tails are held well off the ground.

Snakes

• Snakes that can blink. Real snakes have immovable eyelids and therefore cannot blink. Conversely, giving other reptiles snake-like eyes. Geckos and skinks may have eyes like this, but most other lizards don't; nor do turtles or crocodylians.
• Snakes tying themselves into knots either willingly (IE: using themselves as a makeshift rope) or as a means of being defeated. In reality, a snake's skeletal structure and ability to make themselves rigid (thanks to their powerful muscular system) means that a snake being tied in a knot is extremely rare. About the only known documented cases of snakes tying themselves into knots were captive specimens suffering from IBD (Inclusion Body Disease), a fatal illness that causes involuntary movements (including tying themselves in knots).
• Claiming that snakes are deaf. This is a case of Science Marches On since, yes, snakes can hear. They do so by picking vibrations in the air (or on the ground) through their bodies and into their inner ear. Snakes were believed to hear with their tongues, which are really used to aid the nose in smelling. When a snake flicks its tongue it's sniffing.
• Portraying venomous snakes as having huge fangs. While some of them, such as the Gaboon Viper, do have large fangs (to the point where they have evolved so that said fangs fold against the roof of the mouth just so the snake can close its jaws), many venomous snake species actually have rather small fangs.
  • Likewise, portraying all snakes with huge fangs. Pythons and anacondas are particularly hit with this, despite being non-venomous snakes.
• Especially in cartoons, showing a well-fed snake trying to slither away and getting stuck. While this does sometimes happen in Real Life, most of the time, snakes usually have a more effective way of escaping if necessary after it eats a large meal. It simply throws up the meal, allowing it to move more quickly. Better to go hungry and live to hunt another day than get killed right now.
• Showing all snakes as having heat vision; only members of the pit viper (Crotalinae) family and certain constrictor snakes have this trait. Other snakes like garters or true vipers, do not have the pits that give the pit vipers their name.
• Describing snakes as slimy. This may be because of the sheen their scales give off, which to the unknowing can look like wetness, and given how most people are afraid of snakes don't bother to check by touch. Snakes are actually dry and usually cool to the touch.
• Snakes being portrayed as eating any sort of living thing they can get their coils around. In reality, many species of snake are notoriously picky eaters. Some species will eat a wide variety of prey, while others will only dine on a few particular species.
  • Portraying all snakes as eating mammals (especially rodents). While mammals are common prey for several species, this doesn't apply to all snakes. Some species of snake are even too small to hunt any sort of mammal and instead prey on invertebrates. King Cobras, the largest venomous snake, primarily eat other snakes.
• Constricting snakes are often depicted as not having teeth. Truth is, pythons, anacondas, and boas all have very sharp needle-like teeth which are curved backwards in order to hold onto their prey and prevent it from escaping. About the only snakes that don't have teeth are the various species of egg-eating snakes, who don't need teeth since they eat eggs (said eggs are cracked open using bony protrusions in the snake's throat).
  • The idea that constricting snakes crush their prey to death is a myth. However, the idea they suffocate their prey is also shown to be inaccurate. The reality is that constrictors kill their prey by squeezing until their prey's blood vessels rupture. Not only does this cause internal bleeding, but the ruptured blood vessels near the brain cause the prey to die of asphyxiation much faster than if the snake were to rely on killing its prey by squeezing all the air from its lungs.
• Snakes mindlessly swallowing things whole without consideration for the size of its prey. While this can happen in real life, it is much rarer than media would like one to believe. It's more likely that a snake that ate too much (and had its stomach ruptured as a result) was starving and desperate for any meal it could get.
  • Likewise the idea that snakes eat prey that's still alive. Apart from invertebrates, this is simply not true. Constrictors have actually been documented checking to make sure their prey was dead. Captive constrictors were given meals with simulated heartbeats and would only stop constricting when said heartbeat stopped.
• Any time a snake—especially in fantasy settings—is portrayed as being both venomous and constricting. Usually it's one or the other; very few snake species can do both (mostly rear-fanged species) and even then, they won't be equally efficient.
• Using "python", "boa" and "anaconda" interchangeably. Pythons lay eggs and are found in Africa, Asia and Australia; boas (including anacondas) give live birth and are mostly found in the Americas.
• Snakes do not "unhinge" their jaws. Rather the lower jaw on a snake comprises two separate bones connected by very flexible, loose skin. It actually doesn't take much time at all for a snake to spread their jaw; five seconds tops. If the jaw actually unhinged, the snake would be in pain every time it ate something.
• Most snakes are solitary creatures for the majority of their lives, and very, very few cluster in large masses. It is usually not wise to keep numerous captive snakes in the same cage, especially a small terrarium. A few snakes do group together in cold weather dens, and some species form "mating balls" (the green anaconda is a famous example), but generally snakes want to be alone, and can even be aggressive to members of their own species.
• The vast majority of snakes depicted on screen (outside of documentaries) come from a few stock species, typically commonly bred species with a reputation for calmness, regardless of what the viewer is informed the species is meant to be.
  • Ball pythons and corn snakes are the most commonly used snakes, often standing in even for venomous species. These species are fairly tolerant of being massed together in the way Hollywood loves, even though this isn't a natural behavior for most snakes, and are quite unlikely to strike an actor. Albino corn snakes are commonly bred and are often used to add color variety without actually using more species. Since these are also among the most popular pet snakes, this can easily become a case of Terrifying Pet Store Rat.
  • Burmese pythons are the most commonly used large snake, and are also available in albino coloration (any large yellowish snake you see on film is almost certainly an albino burm). Boa constrictors and reticulated pythons occasionally see some screen time; boas are more common, but retics are the longest snake species on earth and not uncommonly bred, and therefore stand in when a truly impressive snake is desired.
  • Venomous snakes are usually depicted by the above named ball pythons and corn snakes (and sometimes Burmese pythons if the work is especially egregious and wants to depict a gigantic venomous snake), since most viewers can't tell an elapid from a colubrid and they're far less risky to handle. The exceptions are rattlesnakes and cobras, which are utterly unmistakable to even the most uninformed viewer. Rattlesnakes are usually depicted by western diamondbacks, cobras by spectacled cobras. Both species are common, are iconic for their genus, and are easily provoked into their trademark threat poses.
• Cobras are often depicted as having their hood spread out constantly, since it's their most iconic feature and most viewers wouldn't recognize them as cobras otherwise. Cobras normally keep their hood folded up, and only let it out in their defensive posture, when they feel threatened.
• Anacondas are sometimes mentioned preying on jaguars, when there is no good evidence for such behavior. The opposite is more realistic, as jaguars prey on smaller anacondas and have killed even large ones.

Lizards

• Iguanas are frequently used as a stand-in for many other types of lizards and given traits they do not possess for reasons likely related to the Terrifying Pet Store Rat trope, since iguanas are generally easy to come by when filming and, if well socialized, pretty docile and easy to work with.
  • Eating insects. Iguanas eat leafy greens, fruits, and vegetables. They have been known to eat insects and mealworms in the wild; doing so typically indicates a dietary deficiency and is purely opportunistic, and not good for them in large quantities.
  • They can actually change color, slightly— they are mostly green in a neutral state, mostly orange when is trying to show off as a sexually mature male, and 'greyed out' when angry or scared.
  • They also have a slightly sticky tongue, and when they eat, will flick the tongue at the food once or twice, and moist vegetables will stick to the tongue long enough for him to get them into the mouth, but a chameleon's tongue it ain't.
• Chameleons changing color and pattern to blend into their environments is a common belief, but not a very accurate one. While some species do change color as a form of camouflage, most of the time it simply indicates the creature's mood, with brighter patterns only coming out for social signaling such as aggression/defensiveness and mating displays. A few species also use the ability for thermo regulation.
• Lizards with their legs held under the body. Only dinosaurs, crocodile-relatives, and therapsids do that in Real Life. Lizards have the trunks of their legs laterally bent, giving them a sprawled posture.
• Portraying lizards as being descended from dinosaurs. Not only are these reptiles from two separate branches on the biological family tree (lizards are lepidosaurs, while dinosaurs are archosaurs like crocodiles) but the body plan of lizards is "primitive" compared to that of dinosaurs. As in, lizards have sprawled postures retained from their amniote ancestors, whereas dinosaurs evolved to stand upright with their legs tucked underneath their bodies. It should be noted that all known advanced forms of lizards have either become entirely aquatic, in the case of mosasaurs, or lost their limbs, in the case of legless lizards and snakes (as mentioned before, snakes technically are an advanced type of lizard).
• Portraying all geckos as licking their eyes and climbing on walls. An entire family of geckos, the eublepharidae (which includes the popular-as-pets leopard gecko), is distinguished by having eyelids and no sticky footpads.
• Depicting chameleons without the conjoined eyelid that cover most part of their eye leaving a small part exposed for the pupil.
  • To a lesser extent, chameleons will be depicted with fixed eyeballs, when real chameleons have their eyeballs independent from the skull which gives them their wide range of vision.

Turtles

• Showing turtles' carapaces as being removable/a type of clothing/with a little furnished apartment on the inside. While this is only done in slapstick cartoons, young children might not realize that a real turtle's carapace is as removable as a human's ribcage, if not less so. The carapace is formed from the turtle's ribcage and other skeletal elements fusing together with bony scales. There are animals whose shell is essentially a mobile home, but the turtle is not one of them. Removing a turtle's shell would leave you with a very gory dead turtle.
• Treating tortoises as separate from turtles. Technically speaking, the term "turtle" refers to anything in the Testudines order, which tortoises are a part of. And some turtles are more related to tortoises than to other turtles, meaning that if tortoises are excluded as a type of turtle, then "turtle" would be paraphyletic.
• Assuming all turtles are slow on land. While they're no cheetahs, most of them are still capable of sprinting short distances when threatened.
• Assuming all turtles can swim. Tortoises and other land-based turtles have swimming skills that range from poor to non-existent, meaning they'll sink like a stone and possibly drown if placed in water too deep to stand in.
• Portraying turtles with teeth and lipped mouths. They have toothless beaks.
• Turtles are sometimes depicted as taking care of their eggs or young, rather than laying the eggs and leaving when all that's done like in real life.
• Sea turtles are sometimes portrayed in fiction as being able to retract their head and limbs back into their shells. In real life, sea turtles cannot do this.

Crocodilians

• Depicting alligators with V-shaped snouts and/or interlocking teeth, which are traits of crocodiles. Alligators have U-shaped snouts, and the upper teeth overlaps the bottom jaw when the mouth is closed. Conversely, crocodiles are sometimes portrayed with an alligator-like overbite. These inaccuracies may be due to the fact most people have trouble telling crocodiles and alligators apart. That said, some species of crocodiles do have broader snouts like alligators, and caimans (which are the alligators' closest relatives) have lower teeth that protrude out of their mouths like crocodiles.
• Crocodilians are commonly colored as green in many portrayals, but in real life alligators are blue, gray, brown, or black. On the other hand, crocodiles do come in a yellowish or grayish shade of green, but never in plain old green like in most cartoons.
• Portraying crocodiles as being able to stick their tongues out of their mouths, which they can't as their tongues fused to the roof of their mouths so they would block water from coming into the airway. On the other hand, alligators are capable of sticking their tongues out to some degree as theirs is not as fused.
• Never showing a high-walking crocodilian. Crocodilians high-walk almost all the time on land. Smaller species and younger specimens are even known to gallop like horses. Crocodilians are also sometimes mentioned having sprawling legs, when they actually have semi-erect legs (their legs are held underneath their body when they high-walk, but otherwise stick out to the sides).
• Referring to crocodiles as lizards. Lizards have overlapping scales, sprawled limbs, three-chambered hearts, bony eye rings, and a parietal eye. Crocodilians have scutes rather than true scales, semi-erect limbs, and four-chambered hearts, and they don't have bony eye rings or a parietal eye. As mentioned before, crocodilians are more closely related to birds than to any other reptile including lizards.
• Crocodilians are not gluttons. Any predator will likely eat food they come across unless they just had a large meal - crocodilians are no exception. But crocs do not eat more than other predators, and many species are known to go for up to a year without eating anything.
• This is an older one. Using a crocodilian's underbelly as a weak spot. While a croc's underbelly is softer and smoother, so they can easily slide on riverbanks, good luck getting one on it's back. Particularly egregious since crocodilians are well known for the Death Roll.
• Crocodilians are often believed not to shed their skin unlike other reptiles. They do, though by shedding individual scutes as opposed to large folds of skin like with snakes and lizards.
• Crocodilians are always portrayed with an unnatural number of claws, namely having them on each one of their fingers. As archosaurs, crocodilians possess only three claws on their hands by default.
• While this is typical of reptiles, it's particularly true of crocodilians - depicting them as unfeeling with primitive or weak senses. Crocodiles have extremely acute senses of smell, able to smell things above water from below, and sight, able to see colors and in the dark like a cat or wolf (And produce eyeshine as such). Of particular note though is that crocodiles have extremely powerful senses of touch, especially on the end of their snouts, which they use to detect vibrations in the water.
• Any work that portrays crocodiles and alligators as stupid and mindless eating machines. Crocodilians are actually very intelligent, showing tool use (namely using sticks and twigs as bait to lure nesting birds) and capability of learning faster than rats or dogs. Some species primarily hunt by looking like a log some distance away from the bank, memorizing where prey is drinking, and submerging while using their overpowered sense of touch to feel the ripple of tongues and lips drinking combined with what they memorized to get close without being seen.
• Portraying caimans as "mini-alligators" and implying that they make great pets. Even the smallest caiman species can reach an adult length of 5 feet, not quite something you can keep in a tank in your living room. And the largest species, the black caiman, is the fifth-largest reptile in the world and larger than the American alligator. Caimans also tend to be a lot more aggressive than their more easy-going alligator relatives.
• Depicting Nile crocodiles as beholden to the lion, like many African predators. Lions fear the river just as much as any other animal; crocodiles will happily ambush and eat a lion if given the chance, particularly cubs, but generally the two species will try to avoid one another. Desperate, starving prides might attack a basking croc, but individual full-grown Nile Crocodiles are known to fight off multiple lions with little injury due to their thick dermal armor, and that's when it's on land. When it's in the water, it has a major Homefield Advantage.
  • On the flip side, all other big cats are usually depicted as being terrified of crocodiles in fiction, even though tigers and jaguars (the only two big cats who are fond of water) have been documented actively preying on crocodilians on occasions, especially jaguars. Certain individuals in the Pantanal are expert caiman hunters, killing them with a well-placed bite to the back of the head, penetrating the brain (jaguars have the strongest bite of any feline). That said, crocodiles can still easily turn the tide and big cats don’t attack specimens heavier than themselves.
  • Cartoons also show the hippopotamus as being scared of crocodiles, even though real-life hippos would be happy preying on crocs that get near them and biting them apart.
• Assuming you can subdue a crocodilian by holding it's mouth shut. Crocodiles have famously weak muscles for opening their mouths, and your average human can hold their mouth shut. But crocodiles have extremely powerful muscles elsewhere, can easily thrash and roll out of someone's grip, and are lightning quick enough to bite after being let go, smash a limb with the side of their heads, or turn and attack with their tail. This is why Steve Irwin always relied on ropes and thick duct tape to hold a croc's mouth shut, never his own hands alone, and when they did rely on hands, they literally dog pile on even relatively small crocs.
• Claiming that crocodiles are descended from dinosaurs. Crocodilians are the closest living relatives of dinosaurs (including birds), but they are not dinosaurs themselves. Crocodilians actually belong to a separate branch of archosaurs, known as Pseudosuchia.
• Saying that crocodiles went completely unchanged since the age of the dinosaurs. There is some truth to that but it's also a gross oversimplification and is only true if we look at the lineage that led to modern crocs, gators, and gharials (eusuchians), but crocodiles as a whole (crocodylomorphs) were far more diverse in the Mesozoic, with many side branches that looked radically different from our modern concept of crocodiles, such as the metriorhynchids, a group of fully marine crocodiles with flippers, shark-like tail flukes and no osteoderms, and Simosuchus, a small, stocky, fossorial, fully terrestrial and herbivorous crocodile from Late Cretaceous Madagascar. As a matter of fact, being fully terrestrial is how crocodiles started out, with many Mesozoic taxa being small land-based mesocarnivores akin to coyotes or foxes, and land crocs evolved numerous times again during Earth's history, with the last known example, the Australian mekosuchian Quinkana, surviving until just 45,000 years ago (long enough to meet the first people to reach Australia). A rare few ancient taxa, such as the Triassic Carnufex even evolved to be bipedal, converging with theropod dinosaurs.

Frogs

• Toads being considered as separate from frogs. The term "frog" actually refers to members of order Anura, which toads belong to. Basically, toads are frogs with dry, bumpy skin and shorter legs.
  • On the flip side, the idea that a toad is a male frog / a frog is a female toad.
• Portraying a frog as capable of turning its head. Their necks are very short and not flexible, so they can't turn, lift or lower their heads like humans can.
• The idea that toads give people warts is not only an example of this but also Artistic License – Biology in general. Warts are caused by human papilomavirus that enters the outer layer of skin via a cut. It's still recommended not to touch toads or frogs; not only many species can be poisonous, but humans are equally toxic to them. They absorb water through their skin, and the oils from our skin can make them sick.
  • The myth may have come from the misconception that toads have warts, since the bumps on their skin resemble such. Although these bumps contain parotoid glands which they secret their toxins from.
• Describing toads as slimy. Toad skin is actually usually dry and bumpy, since they spend much of their time on land.
• Frogs going "Ribbit". In real life, only a few species like the Baja California treefrog makes that sound, but others make a wide variety of noises like croaking or chirping.
• Frogs are always portrayed with extremely long thin tongues like that of a chameleon. In reality, frogs actually have relatively short rounded tongues, and thus can only catch prey that's directly in front of them.

Other Amphibians

• Salamanders and newts are treated as synonymous. While newts are a type of salamander, they differ from other salamanders in having webbed toes, flatter tails and rough skin.
• Axolotls are often shown walking on land ^note (would be a case of Terrestrial Sea Life, but they don't live in the sea either). Being one of the few types of salamander that keeps their external gills, they must spend their entire lives in the water.