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58-851: Myall Lakes , a series of fresh water lakes protected under the Ramsar Convention , are located within the Mid-Coast Council local government area in the Mid North Coast region of New South Wales , Australia. The Myall Lakes are adjacent to the east coast, about 250 kilometres (155 mi) north of Sydney . There are three Myall Lakes, called Myall Lake, Boolambayte Lake and The Broadwater. When full, Myall Lake covers an area of around 5,800 hectares (14,000 acres); Boolambayte Lake covers an area of around 1,100 hectares (2,700 acres); and Bombah Broadwater covers an area of around 2,400 hectares (5,900 acres). Smiths Lake
116-562: A clade ( monophyletic group) including birds, though the precise definition of this clade varies between authors. Others prioritize the clade Sauropsida , which typically refers to all amniotes more closely related to modern reptiles than to mammals . The earliest known proto-reptiles originated from the Carboniferous period, having evolved from advanced reptiliomorph tetrapods which became increasingly adapted to life on dry land. The earliest known eureptile ("true reptile")
174-547: A desert climate often face physical water scarcity. Central Asia , West Asia , and North Africa are examples of arid areas. Economic water scarcity results from a lack of investment in infrastructure or technology to draw water from rivers, aquifers , or other water sources. It also results from weak human capacity to meet water demand. Many people in Sub-Saharan Africa are living with economic water scarcity. An important concern for hydrological ecosystems
232-447: A temnospondyl ). A series of footprints from the fossil strata of Nova Scotia dated to 315 Ma show typical reptilian toes and imprints of scales. These tracks are attributed to Hylonomus , the oldest unquestionable reptile known. It was a small, lizard-like animal, about 20 to 30 centimetres (7.9 to 11.8 in) long, with numerous sharp teeth indicating an insectivorous diet. Other examples include Westlothiana (for
290-529: A collection of 17 interlinked global goals designed to be a "blueprint to achieve a better and more sustainable future for all". Targets on fresh water conservation are included in SDG 6 (Clean water and sanitation) and SDG 15 (Life on land). For example, Target 6.4 is formulated as "By 2030, substantially increase water-use efficiency across all sectors and ensure sustainable withdrawals and supply of freshwater to address water scarcity and substantially reduce
348-402: A drinking water supply it remains vital to protect due to its ability to carry contaminants and pollutants from the land into lakes and rivers, which constitute a significant percentage of other people's freshwater supply. It is almost ubiquitous underground, residing in the spaces between particles of rock and soil or within crevices and cracks in rock, typically within 100 m (330 ft) of
406-509: A group of tetrapods with an ectothermic ('cold-blooded') metabolism and amniotic development . Living reptiles comprise four orders : Testudines ( turtles ), Crocodilia ( crocodilians ), Squamata ( lizards and snakes ), and Rhynchocephalia (the tuatara ). As of May 2023, about 12,000 living species of reptiles are listed in the Reptile Database . The study of the traditional reptile orders, customarily in combination with
464-428: A larger salt content. Freshwater habitats can be classified by different factors, including temperature, light penetration, nutrients, and vegetation. There are three basic types of freshwater ecosystems: Lentic (slow moving water, including pools , ponds , and lakes ), lotic (faster moving water, for example streams and rivers ) and wetlands (areas where the soil is saturated or inundated for at least part of
522-538: A number of small islands in the lakes. At the northern end of Myall Lake lies Mayers Point. This was the centre of a timber industry established by Allen Taylor and Company Limited. To assist in the transport of the logs from the forests to the lake, an extensive light railway system was constructed. Due to the nature of Myall Lakes being coastal dune lakes, or coastal lagoons, they were featured in an American documentary about conservation done by producer Elam Stoltzfus . Fresh water Fresh water or freshwater
580-495: A section of the clade Amniota : The section that is left after the Mammalia and Aves have been hived off. It cannot be defined by synapomorphies , as is the proper way. Instead, it is defined by a combination of the features it has and the features it lacks: reptiles are the amniotes that lack fur or feathers. At best, the cladists suggest, we could say that the traditional Reptilia are 'non-avian, non-mammalian amniotes'. Despite
638-519: A single factor. Groundwater showed greater resilience to climate change than expected, and areas with an increasing threshold between 0.34 and 0.39 aridity index exhibited significant sensitivity to climate change. Land-use could affect infiltration and runoff processes. The years of most recharge coincided with the most precipitation anomalies, such as during El Niño and La Niña events. Three precipitation-recharge sensitivities were distinguished: in super arid areas with more than 0.67 aridity index, there
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#1732801345681696-569: A tiny gecko, Sphaerodactylus ariasae , which can grow up to 17 mm (0.7 in) to the saltwater crocodile , Crocodylus porosus , which can reach over 6 m (19.7 ft) in length and weigh over 1,000 kg (2,200 lb). In the 13th century, the category of reptile was recognized in Europe as consisting of a miscellany of egg-laying creatures, including "snakes, various fantastic monsters, lizards, assorted amphibians, and worms", as recorded by Beauvais in his Mirror of Nature . In
754-693: Is any naturally occurring liquid or frozen water containing low concentrations of dissolved salts and other total dissolved solids . The term excludes seawater and brackish water , but it does include non-salty mineral-rich waters , such as chalybeate springs. Fresh water may encompass frozen and meltwater in ice sheets , ice caps , glaciers , snowfields and icebergs , natural precipitations such as rainfall , snowfall , hail / sleet and graupel , and surface runoffs that form inland bodies of water such as wetlands , ponds , lakes , rivers , streams , as well as groundwater contained in aquifers , subterranean rivers and lakes . Water
812-555: Is close to the northern Myall Lake, but is not connected nor formally part of the Myall Lakes. The lakes are partially interconnected and navigable by small craft. The Myall River flows into the western side of The Broadwater. The Myall River also flows out of The Broadwater and meanders southwest where it empties into Port Stephens between the towns of Tea Gardens and Hawks Nest . The lower Myall River progressively becomes saltier and more tidal as it flows southwards. Most of
870-449: Is consumed through human activities than is naturally restored, this may result in reduced fresh water availability (or water scarcity ) from surface and underground sources and can cause serious damage to surrounding and associated environments. Water pollution also reduces the availability of fresh water. Where available water resources are scarce, humans have developed technologies like desalination and wastewater recycling to stretch
928-416: Is critical to the survival of all living organisms . Many organisms can thrive on salt water, but the great majority of vascular plants and most insects , amphibians , reptiles , mammals and birds need fresh water to survive. Fresh water is the water resource that is of the most and immediate use to humans. Fresh water is not always potable water , that is, water safe to drink by humans . Much of
986-479: Is equivalent to the more common definition of Sauropsida, which Modesto and Anderson synonymized with Reptilia, since the latter is better known and more frequently used. Unlike most previous definitions of Reptilia, however, Modesto and Anderson's definition includes birds, as they are within the clade that includes both lizards and crocodiles. General classification of extinct and living reptiles, focusing on major groups. The cladogram presented here illustrates
1044-452: Is extracted for human consumption. Agriculture uses roughly two thirds of all fresh water extracted from the environment. Fresh water is a renewable and variable, but finite natural resource . Fresh water is replenished through the process of the natural water cycle , in which water from seas, lakes, forests, land, rivers and reservoirs evaporates, forms clouds , and returns inland as precipitation. Locally, however, if more fresh water
1102-483: Is particularly crucial in Africa, where water resources are often scarce and climate change poses significant challenges. Saline water in oceans , seas and saline groundwater make up about 97% of all the water on Earth . Only 2.5–2.75% is fresh water, including 1.75–2% frozen in glaciers , ice and snow, 0.5–0.75% as fresh groundwater. The water table is the level below which all spaces are filled with water, while
1160-826: Is securing minimum streamflow , especially preserving and restoring instream water allocations . Fresh water is an important natural resource necessary for the survival of all ecosystems . Water pollution (or aquatic pollution) is the contamination of water bodies , with a negative impact on their uses. It is usually a result of human activities. Water bodies include lakes , rivers , oceans , aquifers , reservoirs and groundwater . Water pollution results when contaminants mix with these water bodies. Contaminants can come from one of four main sources. These are sewage discharges, industrial activities, agricultural activities, and urban runoff including stormwater . Water pollution may affect either surface water or groundwater . This form of pollution can lead to many problems. One
1218-420: Is the degradation of aquatic ecosystems . Another is spreading water-borne diseases when people use polluted water for drinking or irrigation . Water pollution also reduces the ecosystem services such as drinking water provided by the water resource . Uses of water include agricultural , industrial , household , recreational and environmental activities. The Sustainable Development Goals are
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#17328013456811276-537: The Amazon River . The atmosphere contains 0.04% water. In areas with no fresh water on the ground surface, fresh water derived from precipitation may, because of its lower density, overlie saline ground water in lenses or layers. Most of the world's fresh water is frozen in ice sheets . Many areas have very little fresh water, such as deserts . Water is a critical issue for the survival of all living organisms. Some can use salt water but many organisms including
1334-663: The Green Sahara periods) and are not appreciably replenished under current climatic conditions - at least compared to drawdown, these aquifers form essentially non-renewable resources comparable to peat or lignite, which are also continuously formed in the current era but orders of magnitude slower than they are mined. Fresh water can be defined as water with less than 500 parts per million (ppm) of dissolved salts . Other sources give higher upper salinity limits for fresh water, e.g. 1,000 ppm or 3,000 ppm. Fresh water habitats are classified as either lentic systems , which are
1392-418: The amniotic egg . The terms Sauropsida ("lizard faces") and Theropsida ("beast faces") were used again in 1916 by E.S. Goodrich to distinguish between lizards, birds, and their relatives on the one hand (Sauropsida) and mammals and their extinct relatives (Theropsida) on the other. Goodrich supported this division by the nature of the hearts and blood vessels in each group, and other features, such as
1450-514: The earth 's fresh water (on the surface and groundwater) is to a substantial degree unsuitable for human consumption without treatment . Fresh water can easily become polluted by human activities or due to naturally occurring processes, such as erosion. Fresh water makes up less than 3% of the world's water resources, and just 1% of that is readily available. About 70% of the world's freshwater reserves are frozen in Antarctica . Just 3% of it
1508-1741: The "family tree" of reptiles, and follows a simplified version of the relationships found by M.S. Lee, in 2013. All genetic studies have supported the hypothesis that turtles are diapsids; some have placed turtles within Archosauromorpha, though a few have recovered turtles as Lepidosauromorpha instead. The cladogram below used a combination of genetic (molecular) and fossil (morphological) data to obtain its results. Synapsida ( mammals and their extinct relatives) [REDACTED] † Millerettidae [REDACTED] † Eunotosaurus † Lanthanosuchidae [REDACTED] † Pareiasauromorpha [REDACTED] † Procolophonoidea [REDACTED] † Captorhinidae [REDACTED] † Paleothyris † Araeoscelidia [REDACTED] † Claudiosaurus [REDACTED] † Younginiformes [REDACTED] † Kuehneosauridae [REDACTED] Rhynchocephalia ( tuatara and their extinct relatives) [REDACTED] Squamata ( lizards and snakes ) [REDACTED] [REDACTED] † Eosauropterygia [REDACTED] † Placodontia [REDACTED] † Sinosaurosphargis † Odontochelys † Proganochelys Testudines ( turtles ) [REDACTED] † Choristodera [REDACTED] † Prolacertiformes [REDACTED] † Rhynchosauria [REDACTED] † Trilophosaurus [REDACTED] Archosauriformes ( crocodiles , birds , dinosaurs and extinct relatives) [REDACTED] [REDACTED] The placement of turtles has historically been highly variable. Classically, turtles were considered to be related to
1566-453: The 18th century, the reptiles were, from the outset of classification, grouped with the amphibians . Linnaeus , working from species-poor Sweden , where the common adder and grass snake are often found hunting in water, included all reptiles and amphibians in class "III – Amphibia" in his Systema Naturæ . The terms reptile and amphibian were largely interchangeable, reptile (from Latin repere , 'to creep') being preferred by
1624-484: The French. J.N. Laurenti was the first to formally use the term Reptilia for an expanded selection of reptiles and amphibians basically similar to that of Linnaeus. Today, the two groups are still commonly treated under the single heading herpetology . It was not until the beginning of the 19th century that it became clear that reptiles and amphibians are, in fact, quite different animals, and P.A. Latreille erected
1682-511: The Myall Lakes are surrounded by the Myall Lakes National Park . The NSW National Parks & Wildlife Service operate a car ferry across the lake at Bombah Point . The area between the lakes and the sea is mainly uninhabited coastal woodlands and long isolated beaches although some of it was mined for heavy mineral sands before the 1970s. The village of Bungwahl is located on the northern shore of Myall Lake. There are
1740-657: The anapsid condition has been found to occur so variably among unrelated groups that it is not now considered a useful distinction. By the early 21st century, vertebrate paleontologists were beginning to adopt phylogenetic taxonomy, in which all groups are defined in such a way as to be monophyletic ; that is, groups which include all descendants of a particular ancestor. The reptiles as historically defined are paraphyletic , since they exclude both birds and mammals. These respectively evolved from dinosaurs and from early therapsids, both of which were traditionally called "reptiles". Birds are more closely related to crocodilians than
1798-494: The area above this level, where spaces in the rock and soil contain both air and water, is known as the unsaturated zone. The water in this unsaturated zone is referred to as soil moisture. Below the water table, the entire region is known as the saturated zone, and the water in this zone is called groundwater. Groundwater plays a crucial role as the primary source of water for various purposes including drinking, washing, farming, and manufacturing, and even when not directly used as
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1856-421: The available supply further. However, given the high cost (both capital and running costs) and - especially for desalination - energy requirements, those remain mostly niche applications. A non-sustainable alternative is using so-called " fossil water " from underground aquifers . As some of those aquifers formed hundreds of thousands or even millions of years ago when local climates were wetter (e.g. from one of
1914-421: The class Batracia (1825) for the latter, dividing the tetrapods into the four familiar classes of reptiles, amphibians, birds, and mammals. The British anatomist T.H. Huxley made Latreille's definition popular and, together with Richard Owen , expanded Reptilia to include the various fossil " antediluvian monsters", including dinosaurs and the mammal-like ( synapsid ) Dicynodon he helped describe. This
1972-554: The early proposals for replacing the paraphyletic Reptilia with a monophyletic Sauropsida , which includes birds, that term was never adopted widely or, when it was, was not applied consistently. When Sauropsida was used, it often had the same content or even the same definition as Reptilia. In 1988, Jacques Gauthier proposed a cladistic definition of Reptilia as a monophyletic node-based crown group containing turtles, lizards and snakes, crocodilians, and birds, their common ancestor and all its descendants. While Gauthier's definition
2030-453: The fetus develops within the mother, using a (non-mammalian) placenta rather than contained in an eggshell . As amniotes, reptile eggs are surrounded by membranes for protection and transport, which adapt them to reproduction on dry land. Many of the viviparous species feed their fetuses through various forms of placenta analogous to those of mammals , with some providing initial care for their hatchlings. Extant reptiles range in size from
2088-535: The freshwater flow to be measurably contaminated both by insoluble solids but also by the soluble components of those soils. Significant quantities of iron may be transported in this way including the well-documented transfer of iron-rich rainfall falling in Brazil derived from sand-storms in the Sahara in north Africa . In Africa, it was revealed that groundwater controls are complex and do not correspond directly to
2146-547: The great majority of higher plants and most mammals must have access to fresh water to live. Some terrestrial mammals, especially desert rodents , appear to survive without drinking, but they do generate water through the metabolism of cereal seeds, and they also have mechanisms to conserve water to the maximum degree. Freshwater ecosystems are a subset of Earth's aquatic ecosystems . They include lakes , ponds , rivers , streams , springs , bogs , and wetlands . They can be contrasted with marine ecosystems , which have
2204-466: The hypothesis that turtles belong to a separate clade within Sauropsida , outside the saurian clade altogether. The origin of the reptiles lies about 310–320 million years ago, in the steaming swamps of the late Carboniferous period, when the first reptiles evolved from advanced reptiliomorphs . The oldest known animal that may have been an amniote is Casineria (though it may have been
2262-508: The late 19th century, a number of definitions of Reptilia were offered. The biological traits listed by Lydekker in 1896, for example, include a single occipital condyle , a jaw joint formed by the quadrate and articular bones, and certain characteristics of the vertebrae . The animals singled out by these formulations, the amniotes other than the mammals and the birds, are still those considered reptiles today. The synapsid/sauropsid division supplemented another approach, one that split
2320-508: The latter are to the rest of extant reptiles. Colin Tudge wrote: Mammals are a clade , and therefore the cladists are happy to acknowledge the traditional taxon Mammalia ; and birds, too, are a clade, universally ascribed to the formal taxon Aves . Mammalia and Aves are, in fact, subclades within the grand clade of the Amniota. But the traditional class Reptilia is not a clade. It is just
2378-796: The living reptiles, there are many diverse groups that are now extinct , in some cases due to mass extinction events . In particular, the Cretaceous–Paleogene extinction event wiped out the pterosaurs , plesiosaurs , and all non-avian dinosaurs alongside many species of crocodyliforms and squamates (e.g., mosasaurs ). Modern non-bird reptiles inhabit all the continents except Antarctica. Reptiles are tetrapod vertebrates , creatures that either have four limbs or, like snakes, are descended from four-limbed ancestors. Unlike amphibians , reptiles do not have an aquatic larval stage. Most reptiles are oviparous , although several species of squamates are viviparous , as were some extinct aquatic clades –
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2436-454: The number of people suffering from water scarcity ." Another target, Target 15.1, is: "By 2020, ensure the conservation, restoration and sustainable use of terrestrial and inland freshwater ecosystems and their services, in particular forests, wetlands , mountains and drylands , in line with obligations under international agreements." Subnotes Reptile See text for extinct groups. Reptiles , as commonly defined, are
2494-422: The other euryapsids, and given the older name Parapsida. Parapsida was later discarded as a group for the most part (ichthyosaurs being classified as incertae sedis or with Euryapsida). However, four (or three if Euryapsida is merged into Diapsida) subclasses remained more or less universal for non-specialist work throughout the 20th century. It has largely been abandoned by recent researchers: In particular,
2552-413: The others as well. Water scarcity (closely related to water stress or water crisis) is the lack of fresh water resources to meet the standard water demand. There are two types of water scarcity. One is physical. The other is economic water scarcity . Physical water scarcity is where there is not enough water to meet all demands. This includes water needed for ecosystems to function. Regions with
2610-416: The primitive anapsid reptiles. Molecular work has usually placed turtles within the diapsids. As of 2013, three turtle genomes have been sequenced. The results place turtles as a sister clade to the archosaurs , the group that includes crocodiles, non-avian dinosaurs, and birds. However, in their comparative analysis of the timing of organogenesis , Werneburg and Sánchez-Villagra (2009) found support for
2668-438: The reptiles into four subclasses based on the number and position of temporal fenestrae , openings in the sides of the skull behind the eyes. This classification was initiated by Henry Fairfield Osborn and elaborated and made popular by Romer 's classic Vertebrate Paleontology . Those four subclasses were: The composition of Euryapsida was uncertain. Ichthyosaurs were, at times, considered to have arisen independently of
2726-421: The sea if windy conditions have lifted drops of seawater into the rain-bearing clouds. This can give rise to elevated concentrations of sodium , chloride , magnesium and sulfate as well as many other compounds in smaller concentrations. In desert areas, or areas with impoverished or dusty soils, rain-bearing winds can pick up sand and dust and this can be deposited elsewhere in precipitation and causing
2784-420: The stillwaters including ponds , lakes, swamps and mires ; lotic which are running-water systems; or groundwaters which flow in rocks and aquifers . There is, in addition, a zone which bridges between groundwater and lotic systems, which is the hyporheic zone , which underlies many larger rivers and can contain substantially more water than is seen in the open channel. It may also be in direct contact with
2842-789: The structure of the forebrain. According to Goodrich, both lineages evolved from an earlier stem group, Protosauria ("first lizards") in which he included some animals today considered reptile-like amphibians , as well as early reptiles. In 1956, D.M.S. Watson observed that the first two groups diverged very early in reptilian history, so he divided Goodrich's Protosauria between them. He also reinterpreted Sauropsida and Theropsida to exclude birds and mammals, respectively. Thus his Sauropsida included Procolophonia , Eosuchia , Millerosauria , Chelonia (turtles), Squamata (lizards and snakes), Rhynchocephalia , Crocodilia , " thecodonts " ( paraphyletic basal Archosauria ), non- avian dinosaurs , pterosaurs , ichthyosaurs , and sauropterygians . In
2900-693: The study of modern amphibians , is called herpetology . Reptiles have been subject to several conflicting taxonomic definitions. In Linnaean taxonomy , reptiles are gathered together under the class Reptilia ( / r ɛ p ˈ t ɪ l i ə / rep- TIL -ee-ə ), which corresponds to common usage. Modern cladistic taxonomy regards that group as paraphyletic , since genetic and paleontological evidence has determined that birds (class Aves), as members of Dinosauria , are more closely related to living crocodilians than to other reptiles, and are thus nested among reptiles from an evolutionary perspective. Many cladistic systems therefore redefine Reptilia as
2958-666: The surface, and soil moisture, and less than 0.01% of it as surface water in lakes , swamps and rivers . Freshwater lakes contain about 87% of this fresh surface water, including 29% in the African Great Lakes , 22% in Lake Baikal in Russia, 21% in the North American Great Lakes , and 14% in other lakes. Swamps have most of the balance with only a small amount in rivers, most notably
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#17328013456813016-469: The time). Freshwater ecosystems contain 41% of the world's known fish species. The increase in the world population and the increase in per capita water use puts increasing strains on the finite resources availability of clean fresh water. The response by freshwater ecosystems to a changing climate can be described in terms of three interrelated components: water quality, water quantity or volume, and water timing. A change in one often leads to shifts in
3074-657: The underlying underground water. The original source of almost all fresh water is precipitation from the atmosphere , in the form of mist , rain and snow . Fresh water falling as mist, rain or snow contains materials dissolved from the atmosphere and material from the sea and land over which the rain bearing clouds have traveled. The precipitation leads eventually to the formation of water bodies that humans can use as sources of freshwater: ponds , lakes , rainfall , rivers , streams , and groundwater contained in underground aquifers . In coastal areas fresh water may contain significant concentrations of salts derived from
3132-590: The years following Gauthier's paper. The first such new definition, which attempted to adhere to the standards of the PhyloCode , was published by Modesto and Anderson in 2004. Modesto and Anderson reviewed the many previous definitions and proposed a modified definition, which they intended to retain most traditional content of the group while keeping it stable and monophyletic. They defined Reptilia as all amniotes closer to Lacerta agilis and Crocodylus niloticus than to Homo sapiens . This stem-based definition
3190-650: Was Hylonomus , a small and superficially lizard-like animal which lived in Nova Scotia during the Bashkirian age of the Late Carboniferous , around 318 million years ago . Genetic and fossil data argues that the two largest lineages of reptiles, Archosauromorpha (crocodilians, birds, and kin) and Lepidosauromorpha (lizards, and kin), diverged during the Permian period. In addition to
3248-592: Was close to the modern consensus, nonetheless, it became considered inadequate because the actual relationship of turtles to other reptiles was not yet well understood at this time. Major revisions since have included the reassignment of synapsids as non-reptiles, and classification of turtles as diapsids. Gauthier 1994 and Laurin and Reisz 1995's definition of Sauropsida defined the scope of the group as distinct and broader than that of Reptilia, encompassing Mesosauridae as well as Reptilia sensu stricto . A variety of other definitions were proposed by other scientists in
3306-461: Was constant recharge with little variation with precipitation; in most sites (arid, semi-arid, humid), annual recharge increased as annual precipitation remained above a certain threshold; and in complex areas down to 0.1 aridity index (focused recharge), there was very inconsistent recharge (low precipitation but high recharge). Understanding these relationships can lead to the development of sustainable strategies for water collection. This understanding
3364-627: Was not the only possible classification scheme: In the Hunterian lectures delivered at the Royal College of Surgeons in 1863, Huxley grouped the vertebrates into mammals , sauroids, and ichthyoids (the latter containing the fishes and amphibians). He subsequently proposed the names of Sauropsida and Ichthyopsida for the latter two groups. In 1866, Haeckel demonstrated that vertebrates could be divided based on their reproductive strategies, and that reptiles, birds, and mammals were united by
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