This number includes the 5 species of marine turtles that visit the beaches of Sri Lanka for nesting and the 13 species of marine snakes (Family Hydrophiidae) that inhabit the coastal waters, estuaries, mangroves, and river mouths of the country.
Of the reptiles, six endemic genera comprising of 22 species of saurian reptiles (Chalcidoseps – 1 species, Lankascincus – 6 species; Nessia – 8 species) and three of agamid lizards (Ceratophora – 5 species; Lyriocephalus – 1 species; Cophotis – 1 species), are considered geographical relicts (Crusz, 1986; Greer, 1991, de Silva 2001).
Chalcidoseps thwaitesii is mainly confined to the Knuckles ecosystem.
The distribution of reptiles is fairly clearly determined by the three climatic zones (wet, intermediate and dry) with altitude forming another important parameter.
The relict species (all Ceratophora, Cophotis, Lyriocephalus, Chalcidoseps, Nessia and several species of Lankascincus, Aspidura, Balanophis, Cercaspis and Haplocercus) are confined to the wet and parts of the intermediate climatic zones from sea-level to 2200 m above the mean sea level.
Within this altitudinal range, the species are distributed according to their ecological needs: e.g., Ceratophora stoddartii inhabits cloud forest from 1500 to 2200 m above the mean sea level.
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