Reptiles lay eggs with hard shells. Lizards, snakes and tortoises are reptiles which live mainly on land while crocodiles, alligators and turtles live in water.
Among the several subclasses (or " orders" in biology) of reptiles are snakes and lizards, turtles and tortoises, crocodiles and alligators, and the tuatara, a marine lizard in New Zealand.
But in China, the idea of the dragon may have come from the alligator- a shy animal which lives in rivers, but which is usually only seen when there is plenty of water-a good sign for agriculture.
It can take out one of our apex predators which are alligators and crocodiles, and then they'll take down some of the other native animals that are small mammals: some of the rats, the mice, the marsh bunnies.
North America's largest freshwater swamp stretches across roughly 700 square miles, nearly the size of Houston, and provides habitat for black bears, sandhill cranes, and thousands of alligators.