How Do Legless Lizards Move? Survive?

Something slithered in the grass below. Initially, it seemed like it was a snake and I had to hold my breath for a moment before I bothered to consider the creature that was using weird s-movements while crawling through the grassy plain. Staring at the creature in awe, it dawned on me that the reptile had no actual legs.

It seemed as if it was moving entirely on its stomach!

I wasn’t at the Mojave Desert when I spotted this legless lizard but I had read in a past newspaper article that California-based biologists had stumbled across four new species of legless lizards at first in the Mojave Desert and then at the runway at LAX.

If you’re one of the many people who have never heard about legless lizards, keep reading to learn more about fascinating, exotic creatures.

Are Legless Lizards Snakes?

The idea of a lizard not moving on all fours can be quite confusing. If you, like me, are fascinated with these creatures, you will know that the fact that four new species of legless lizard were found means that lizards are a species with their own qualities. While there are striking similarities between the snake and the legless lizard, their distinct movement patterns prove that both species are actually worlds apart.

More subtle differences between the snake and legless lizard include the way their jaws are structured and the characteristics of their ear openings. These legless lizards have to survive on smaller creatures in comparison to the creatures that are gobbled up by the snake. This is due to the fact that the lizards’ jaws are closely intertwined.

Generally, legless lizards consume prey that is smaller than the size of their heads. While both the legless lizard and the snake survive, they move rather differently in order to survive.

Early Beginnings

While we could assume that the legless lizard and the snake have somewhat of a similar history, we have found fossil remains of legless lizards which may prove that they are an earlier ascendant of the snake.

“In 2007, scientists discovered a 95-million-year-old fossil … Read the rest of the story.

from Nature Nibble https://ift.tt/4O6gFrI