Reptiles and Amphibians
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50 free Reptiles and Amphibians trivia questions with answers — trivia quiz, new questions added Oct 2026.
Reptiles and amphibians are often lumped together, and for good reason: both are cold-blooded, both have been around far longer than mammals, and both include some of the strangest animals alive. Look closer, though, and they turn out to be very different. One group is scaly and at home on dry land; the other has moist skin and usually starts life in water. This quiz covers both sides. There are questions on snakes, lizards, turtles and crocodilians, on frogs, toads, salamanders and their odder relatives, and on what separates the two groups. Expect giant species, clever defences, unusual parents, a little fossil history and the vocabulary a biology class expects you to know. It is pitched for students, teachers and anyone who likes wildlife. The early questions are friendly and the later ones reach college level, and every answer comes with a short explanation, so the page works as a classroom review or a printable quiz with answers as well as a quick game.
30 of 50 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01Reptiles and frogs live wild on six of the seven continents; which one has none of either?
Antarctica
Antarctica is the only continent where no reptiles or frogs live. On the other six they range from tropical forests to subarctic regions.
Q 02Which reptile, a hunter able to bring down deer and water buffalo, is the largest living lizard?
Komodo dragon
Komodo dragon males can reach 3 metres and 150 kg, making the species the largest living lizard. It survives on only a handful of Indonesian islands.
Q 03What name is given to the change that turns a gilled, swimming tadpole into an air-breathing frog?
Metamorphosis
Metamorphosis rebuilds a tadpole almost completely: legs sprout, a tongue forms and, a few days later, the tail is absorbed back into the body.
Q 04Which lizards can swivel each eye separately and fire a sticky tongue farther than their own body length?
Chameleons
Chameleons can watch two different objects at once, because each eye pivots and focuses on its own. Small species shoot their tongues more than twice their body length.
Q 05Old folk belief wrongly blames touching a toad for which skin growths, really caused by a human virus?
Warts
Warts come from the human papillomavirus, which toads do not carry. The myth probably grew from the bumpy glands on a toad's back, which look much the same.
Q 06Which living animals are the closest relatives of crocodilians, closer than any lizard or snake?
Birds
Birds and crocodilians are the only known survivors of the archosaurs, so a crocodile is a closer cousin to a sparrow than to any lizard.
Q 07A rattlesnake adds one new segment to the rattle on its tail each time it does what?
Sheds its skin
A rattlesnake sheds its skin several times a year and gains a segment each time, while old end segments break off. Counting the rattle therefore says nothing about its age.
Q 08In crocodilians and most turtles, which nest condition decides whether an egg hatches male or female?
Temperature
Temperature during incubation sets the sex of crocodilians and most turtles. In many turtles a shift of only 1 to 2 degrees Celsius tips a nest from sons to daughters.
Q 09A snake flicking its forked tongue is collecting airborne particles to serve which of its senses?
Smell
Smell is what the tongue serves: its tips deliver particles to the Jacobson's organ in the mouth, and the fork tells a snake which direction a scent is coming from.
Q 10Which predator, ranging from India's east coast to northern Australia, is the largest living reptile?
Saltwater crocodile
Saltwater crocodile males typically grow 3.5 to 5 metres long and can top 1,000 kg, the most of any living reptile. Despite the name, the species also lives in freshwater rivers.
Q 11Which broad-snouted reptile lives wild in only two countries, the United States and China?
Alligator
Alligator species survive only in the American southeast and China's Yangtze valley. With its mouth shut an alligator hides its lower teeth, while a crocodile shows both rows.
Q 12Which Asian snake, a hunter that mainly eats other snakes, is the longest venomous snake in the world?
King cobra
King cobra adults average 3 to 4 metres, and the record stands at 5.85 metres. Despite the name it is not a true cobra and sits in a genus of its own.
Q 13Which lizards can run up windows and across ceilings on toes covered in tiny hairs called setae?
Geckos
Geckos with these pads, about 60% of species, pack some 14,000 hair-like setae into every square millimetre, and the pads clean themselves of dirt within a few steps.
Q 21Which limbless, burrowing tropical amphibians are easily mistaken for earthworms or small snakes?
Caecilians
Caecilians have tiny eyes or none at all, and their name comes from the Latin for blind. The largest species grows to about 1.5 metres.
Q 22Which amphibian of Cameroon and Equatorial Guinea is the largest of all living frogs?
Goliath frog
The goliath frog can top 3 kg, with a body more than 30 cm long before the legs are counted. Stretched out, the biggest specimens measure over 80 cm.
Q 23Which Southeast Asian snake, longer though lighter than the green anaconda, is the world's longest?
Reticulated python
Q 14Which Pacific island group takes its name from an old Spanish word for the giant tortoises found there?
Galápagos Islands
The Galápagos Islands were named by 16th-century Spanish explorers after galápago, their word for tortoise. The giant tortoises there can live for more than 100 years in the wild.
Q 15Which sea turtle, a deep-diving hunter of jellyfish, is the largest of all living turtles?
Leatherback
Leatherback turtles reach 2.7 metres and 500 kg and can dive to 1,200 metres. Alone among sea turtles they have no bony shell, only thick, flexible skin where the hard plates would be.
Q 16Which amphibian, shipped to Australia in 1935 to eat crop-destroying beetles, became a notorious pest?
Cane toad
The cane toad was brought in to protect sugar cane, then spread from its Queensland release sites to the Northern Territory border by 1984. Most attempts to halt it have failed.
Q 17Which vast United States wetland has been overrun by Burmese pythons descended from released pets?
Everglades
The Everglades of southern Florida have held a breeding population of Burmese pythons since at least 2000. Marsh rabbits released there for a study were wiped out by the snakes within 11 months.
Q 18Which Mexican salamander keeps its feathery external gills for life and can regrow entire lost limbs?
Axolotl
The axolotl never grows out of its larval form and breeds while still fully aquatic. Its wild home, the lake system now largely covered by Mexico City, has almost vanished.
Q 19Which feature, visible on the sides of most lizards' heads, is completely missing in every snake?
Ear holes
Ear holes are absent in snakes, yet they are far from deaf: an inner ear linked to the jaw picks up vibrations as faint as soft speech in a quiet room.
Q 20Which New Zealand reptile looks like a lizard but is the last survivor of a separate, ancient order?
Tuatara
The tuatara is the only living member of an order that spread worldwide in the age of the dinosaurs. Its nearest living relatives are the lizards and snakes it resembles.
The reticulated python is a constrictor without venom, the world's longest snake yet only its third heaviest. A strong swimmer, it has been reported far out at sea.
Q 24Which flat-bodied desert reptiles of North America can squirt a stream of blood from their eyes?
Horned lizards
Horned lizards can fire the blood up to 1.5 metres by raising pressure in the head until tiny vessels burst. It tastes foul to predators of the dog and cat families.
Q 25Which venomous lizard of the American Southwest has venom that led to a class of modern diabetes drugs?
Gila monster
The Gila monster makes exendin-4, the venom peptide behind exenatide and the wider GLP-1 family of drugs for diabetes and obesity. It is the only venomous lizard native to the United States.
Q 26Which Central American lizard, nicknamed the Jesus Christ lizard, can sprint across the surface of water?
Basilisk
The basilisk slaps the water with long-toed hind feet whose fringes of skin trap a pocket of air under each step. Once it slows it sinks, and swims the rest of the way.
Q 27Which Central and South American amphibians have see-through belly skin that reveals a beating heart?
Glass frogs
Glass frogs are lime green from above, but their transparent undersides put the heart, liver and gut on show. Tucking in their see-through legs blurs their outline on a leaf.
Q 28Which North American amphibian, found even above the Arctic Circle, survives winter frozen solid?
Wood frog
The wood frog can survive with up to 70% of its body water turned to ice and no heartbeat at all. Its liver floods the body with glucose, which limits ice formation and protects the cells.
Q 29Which giant salamander of eastern US streams goes by folk names such as snot otter and lasagna lizard?
Hellbender
The hellbender is North America's largest salamander, at up to 74 cm. It rarely swims, instead gripping rocks with its toe pads and walking along the stream bed.
Q 30Which branch of zoology, named from the Greek for a creeping animal, studies reptiles and amphibians?
Herpetology
Herpetology treats the two groups together because Linnaeus once put reptiles and amphibians in the same class. Many amateur enthusiasts call themselves herpers.