Reptile & Amphibian Arena

About Reptile & Amphibian Arena

Nine competitions on photographs of 6,839 living reptiles and amphibians: snakes, lizards, turtles, crocodilians, the tuatara, frogs, toads, salamanders, newts and caecilians. Many have no English name and appear under their scientific name.

Play the 298 best-known species, everything at once or one of eleven groups. Names and families follow iNaturalist; where each species lives comes from GBIF occurrence records; length, habitat and egg-laying or live birth from ReptTraits, SquamBase and AmphiBIO. Photographs come from Wikimedia Commons and iNaturalist, each credited.

How to play

Goal

Recognize the world’s reptiles and amphibians from their photographs and learn their names, Latin names, where they live, families, habitats, how they are born and how long they grow.

How it ends

Finish ten questions or ten pairs, exhaust the sprint clock, or make one sprint mistake.

Record

Best score, highest Length Reserve or fastest Matching finish, with time and the player’s name.

1. Recognition Sprint: choose the pictured species from eight English names, mostly relatives from the same family or order. You have 90 seconds and one wrong answer ends the run. Most correct answers wins; the time of the last one breaks ties.
2. Latin Names: name ten photographs from eight scientific names, mostly of related species. Most correct answers wins, then time.
3. Name Search: identify ten photographs. Type part of a common, scientific or former name and pick from the list; close spellings are offered. A lesser-known species of the same genus also counts. Correct answers rank first, then faster time.
4. Where It Lives: each of ten named species comes with six of thirteen world regions. Exactly one is a region where it lives in the wild; the other five hold no records of it. Most correct answers wins, then time.
5. Family: choose the family of ten named species from eight, each shown with two of its best-known members. Most correct answers wins, then time.
6. Habitat: say where each of ten species spends its days: on the ground, among rocks, in trees and shrubs, burrowing underground, or in or beside water. Most correct answers wins, then time.
7. Eggs or Live Young: say whether the mother of each of ten species lays eggs or bears live young. Most correct answers wins, then time.
8. Length Reserve: guess the largest adult length of ten species in centimetres. You start with 1,000; a guess from 0.6 of the record to a fifth above it is free, beyond that you lose more the further off, up to 100 per species. Highest reserve wins, then time.
9. Matching: select a photograph, then its name, or drag one onto its partner. Match all ten pairs. Each wrong pair adds three seconds; fastest adjusted finish wins.

Controls

Tips

• Read the scales and skin Smooth moist skin means an amphibian; dry scales or plates mean a reptile, which already halves the families to consider.
• Each question names its length Frogs and salamanders are measured snout to vent, turtles by shell length, snakes and lizards to the tip of the tail.
• Live birth follows the cold Many lizards and snakes of high mountains and cool climates keep their eggs inside until they hatch, so they count as live young.

Good to know

Every photograph retains its creator, chosen licence, original title and source links. Creator credits appear beside the photograph; Full photo credit opens the complete attribution and sources. Opening full credits during a question, leaving the tab, restoring an unfinished run or a mid-run photo-loading interruption makes that attempt practice. A photograph is never evidence of where a species lives.

Watch how to play

Watch the tutorial 4:50

Questions