Editing Reptile (section)

===Cenozoic reptiles===
[[File:Varanus priscus Melbourne Museum.jpg|thumb|''[[Megalania|Varanus priscus]]'' was a giant carnivorous [[goanna]] lizard, perhaps as long as 7&nbsp;metres and weighing up to 1,940&nbsp;kilograms<ref>{{cite book |author=Molnar, Ralph E. |year=2004 |title=Dragons in the Dust: The paleobiology of the giant monitor lizard Megalania |publisher=Indiana University Press |location=Bloomington |isbn=978-0-253-34374-1 }}</ref>]]
[[File:Champsosaurus natator.jpg|thumb|Skeleton of ''[[Champsosaurus]]'', a [[choristodere]], the latest surviving order of extinct reptiles. The last known choristoderes are known from the [[Miocene]], around 11.3 million years ago ]]
The close of the [[Cretaceous]] period saw the demise of the Mesozoic era reptilian megafauna (see the [[Cretaceous–Paleogene extinction event]], also known as K-T&nbsp;extinction event). Of the large [[marine reptile]]s, only [[sea turtle]]s were left; and of the non-marine large reptiles, only the semi-aquatic [[crocodilia|crocodiles]] and broadly similar [[Choristodera|choristoderes]] survived the extinction, with last members of the latter, the lizard-like ''[[Lazarussuchus]]'', becoming extinct in the [[Miocene]].<ref>{{cite journal |last=Evans |first=Susan E. |author2=Klembara, Jozef |year=2005 |title=A choristoderan reptile (Reptilia: Diapsida) from the Lower Miocene of northwest Bohemia (Czech Republic) |journal=Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology |volume=25 |issue=1 |pages=171–184 |doi=10.1671/0272-4634(2005)025[0171:ACRRDF]2.0.CO;2 |s2cid=84097919 }}</ref> Of the great host of dinosaurs dominating the Mesozoic, only the small beaked [[birds]] survived. This dramatic extinction pattern at the end of the Mesozoic led into the Cenozoic. Mammals and birds filled the empty niches left behind by the reptilian megafauna and, while reptile diversification slowed, bird and mammal diversification took an exponential turn.<ref name=Sahney-Benton-Ferry-2010/> However, reptiles were still important components of the megafauna, particularly in the form of large and giant [[tortoise]]s.<ref name=Hansen>{{cite journal |author1=Hansen, D.M. |author2=Donlan, C.J. |author3=Griffiths, C.J. |author4=Campbell, K.J. |date=April 2010 |title=Ecological history and latent conservation potential: Large and giant tortoises as a model for taxon substitutions |journal=[[Ecography (journal)|Ecography]] |volume=33 |issue=2 |pages=272–284 |doi=10.1111/j.1600-0587.2010.06305.x |bibcode=2010Ecogr..33..272H |doi-access=free}}</ref><ref name="Cione">{{cite journal |last=Cione |first=A.L. |author2=Tonni, E.P. |author3=Soibelzon, L. |year=2003 |title=The broken zig-zag: Late Cenozoic large mammal and tortoise extinction in South America |journal=Rev. Mus. Argentino Cienc. Nat. |series=N.S. |volume=5 |issue=1 |pages=1–19 |doi=10.22179/REVMACN.5.26 |doi-access=free }}</ref>

After the extinction of most archosaur and marine reptile lines by the end of the Cretaceous, reptile diversification continued throughout the Cenozoic. [[Squamata|Squamates]] took a massive hit during the K–Pg event, only recovering ten million years after it,<ref name=LBG12>{{cite journal | last1 = Longrich | first1 = Nicholas R. | last2 = Bhullar | first2 = Bhart-Anjan S. | last3 = Gauthier | first3 = Jacques A. | year = 2012 | title = Mass extinction of lizards and snakes at the Cretaceous–Paleogene boundary | journal = Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America | volume = 109 | issue = 52 | pages = 21396–21401 | doi = 10.1073/pnas.1211526110 |doi-access=free| pmid=23236177 | pmc=3535637| bibcode = 2012PNAS..10921396L }}</ref> but they underwent a great radiation event once they recovered, and today squamates make up the majority of living reptiles (> 95%).<ref name="The Reptile Database">{{cite web |title = The Reptile Database |url = http://www.reptile-database.org/ |access-date = February 23, 2016}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal |author1=Reeder, Tod W. |author2=Townsend, Ted M. |author3=Mulcahy, Daniel G. |author4=Noonan, Brice P. |author5=Wood, Perry L. Jr. |author6=Sites, Jack W. Jr. |author7=Wiens, John J. |year=2015 |title=Integrated analyses resolve conflicts over squamate reptile phylogeny and reveal unexpected placements for fossil taxa |journal=[[PLOS One]] |volume=10 |issue=3 |page=e0118199 |pmid=25803280 |pmc=4372529 |doi=10.1371/journal.pone.0118199 |doi-access=free |bibcode=2015PLoSO..1018199R }}</ref> Approximately 10,000 extant species of traditional reptiles are known, with birds adding about 10,000 more, almost twice the number of mammals, represented by about 5,700&nbsp;living species (excluding [[List of domesticated animals|domesticated]] species).<ref>{{cite report |section=Numbers of threatened species by major groups of organisms (1996–2012) |title=[[IUCN Red List]] |year=2010 |publisher=[[International Union for Conservation of Nature|IUCN]] |section-url=http://www.iucnredlist.org/documents/summarystatistics/2012_1_RL_Stats_Table_1.pdf |access-date=January 30, 2013 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130204111508/http://www.iucnredlist.org/documents/summarystatistics/2012_1_RL_Stats_Table_1.pdf |archive-date=February 4, 2013 }}</ref>

{| class="wikitable"
|+
Species diversity of living reptiles (2013)<ref name=":0">{{Cite journal|last1=Pincheira-Donoso|first1=Daniel|last2=Bauer|first2=Aaron M.|last3=Meiri|first3=Shai|last4=Uetz|first4=Peter|date=2013-03-27|title=Global Taxonomic Diversity of Living Reptiles|journal=PLOS ONE|volume=8|issue=3|pages=e59741|bibcode=2013PLoSO...859741P|doi=10.1371/journal.pone.0059741|issn=1932-6203|pmc=3609858|pmid=23544091|doi-access=free}}</ref>
!Reptile group
!Described species
!Percent of reptile species
|-
|Squamates
|9193
|96.3%
|-
|''- Lizards''
|''5634''
|''59%''
|-
|''- Snakes''
|''3378''
|''35%''
|-
|''- Amphisbaenians''
|''181''
|''2%''
|-
|Turtles
|327
|3.4%
|-
|Crocodilians
|25
|0.3%
|-
|Rhynchocephalians
|1
|0.01%
|-
|Total
|9546
|100%
|}