||Rep*til"i*a (r?p-t?l"?-?), n. pl. [NL.] (Zoöl.) A class of
||air-breathing oviparous vertebrates, usually covered with scales or
||bony plates. The heart generally has two auricles and one ventricle.
||The development of the young is the same as that of birds.
It is nearly related in many respects to Aves, or birds. The principal
existing orders are Testidunata or Chelonia (turtles), Crocodilia,
Lacertilla (lizards), Ophidia (serpents), and Rhynchocephala; the chief
extinct orders are Dinosauria, Theremorpha, Mosasauria, Pterosauria,
Plesiosauria, Ichtyosauria.
Rep*til"i*an (-an), a. Belonging to the reptiles.
Reptilian age (Geol.), that part of geological time comprising the
Triassic, Jurassic, and Cretaceous periods, and distinguished as that
era in which the class of reptiles attained its highest expansion; --
called also the Secondary or Mezozoic age.
Rep*til"i*an, n. (Zoöl.) One of the Reptilia; a reptile.
Re*pub"lic (r?-p?b"l?k), n. [F. république, L. respublica commonwealth;
res a thing, an affair + publicus, publica, public. See Real, a., and
Public.]