Amniote facts for kids
Quick facts for kids AmniotaTemporal range: Carboniferous (Middle Mississippian) to Recent
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Amniota
Haeckel, 1866
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Amniotes are a clade of tetrapod vertebrates comprising the reptiles, birds, and mammals. Amniotes lay their eggs on land or keep the fertilized egg within the mother, and are distinguished from the anamniotes (fishes and amphibians), which typically lay their eggs in water.
Amniotes are tetrapods (descendants of four-limbed and backboned animals) that are characterized by having an egg equipped with an amnion, an adaptation to lay eggs on land rather than in water as the anamniotes (including frogs) typically do.
Amniotes include synapsids (mammals along with their extinct kin) and sauropsids (reptiles and birds), as well as their ancestors, back to amphibians.
Amniote embryos, whether laid as eggs or carried by the female, are protected and aided by several extensive membranes. In eutherian mammals (such as humans), these membranes include the amniotic sac that surrounds the fetus. These embryonic membranes and the lack of a larval stage distinguish amniotes from tetrapod amphibians.
The first amniotes, referred to as "basal amniotes", resembled small lizards and evolved from the amphibian reptiliomorphs about 312 million years ago, in the Carboniferous geologic period. Their eggs could survive out of the water, allowing amniotes to branch out into drier environments. The eggs could also "breathe" and cope with wastes, allowing the eggs and the amniotes themselves to evolve into larger forms.
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In Spanish: Amniota para niños
