The Challenges of Reptile Classification
Reptiles can be quite challenging to classify. There are two main reasons for this — scientific disagreement and scientific advancement. Actually, these two things are closely related, as they pertain to reptile classification and species names.
As our knowledge of the natural world evolves and becomes more sophisticated, it affects the way we look at taxonomy and classification of species. For example, we used to classify snakes into a handful of families. Now there are 18 recognized families of snakes on the planet.
But it's important to understand that it's not the reptiles that have changed (not in our lifetimes, anyway) but merely the way we look at them. Case in point — you can call the Bothrops asper a fer-de-lance, a lancehead, a Central American lancehead, or a terciopelo ... but it's still the same snake.
With all of that being said, you can rest assured that we will keep this website (and the way it defines reptile classification in general) as current as possible, even if that means I have to reorganize web pages once a year.