Facts about Lizards
Like all other lizards, they are dry-skinned and generally prefer to avoid water.
Due to their smooth, shiny appearance, lizards can appear slimy or slippery; their skin is actually very dry due to a lack of pores to excrete lubricants.
Lizards also are differentiated from snakes by having external ear openings and typically movable eyelids.
Species of lizards sold as pets include iguanas, bearded dragon, leopard geckos, tegus, and monitor lizards.
Lizards generally are distinguished from snakes—which also belong to order Squamata, but are placed in suborder Serpentes—by the presence of legs, although some lizards are legless.
Lizards are found in all continents except Antarctica, with one species even found in the Arctic Circle.
All lizards are capable of swimming if needed and a few (such as the Nile monitor) are quite comfortable in aquatic environments.
Many lizards can change color in response to their environments or in times of stress.
Most lizards are carnivorous, but preying on insects or small animals, such as rodents.
Lizards typically have a tail longer than the body and, like snakes, a chemosensory organ in the mouth.
Encompassing 40 families and about 3,000 species, lizards offer a tremendous variety in color, appearance, and size.
The order Squamata is composed of lizards (suborder Squamata) and snakes (suborder Serpentes).
Lizards have an integumentary system comprised of scales, with a skull composed of quadrate bones.
Some lizard species, including the glass lizard and legless lizards, lack functional legs although there are some vestigial structures.
Some well-known types of lizards are iguanas, skinks, geckos, chameleons, gila monsters, and horned toads.
Most lizards are oviparous (lay eggs, most buried in ground but some hatched as laid), though a few species are viviparous (live birth) where fertilization is internal.
Lizards have less flexible jaws than snakes, usually movable eyelids (although see geckos), external ear openings (although see chameleons), and most have four-well developed limbs, often with five toes on each foot.
Lizards are part of a group of animals known as reptiles. ... In general, lizards have a small head, short neck, and long body and tail. Unlike snakes, most lizards have moveable eyelids. There are currently over 4,675 lizard species, including iguanas, chameleons, geckos, Gila monsters, monitors, and skinks.
Habitat. Lizards are found all over the world in almost every type of terrain. Some live in trees; others prefer to live in vegetation on the ground, while others live in deserts among rocks. For example, the Texas horned lizard is found in the warm areas with little plant cover in southern North America.Sep 8, 2016
While some animals have developed ways of extracting water from the food they eat, or reducing water lost through evaporation, desert dwelling lizards don't drink water at all; they absorb it through their skin.Jan 29, 2008
Smaller lizards like chameleons, geckos and anoles eat mostly insects like flies and crickets. So, what do lizards eat besides flies and crickets? They also eat other small creatures like snails, spiders and caterpillars. The bigger the lizard, the bigger its prey.
Anyone who's tried to catch a lizard knows that you usually end up in an undignified sprawl on the ground. ... They found that the lizards' limb motions were very different from one stride to the next. A scrub lizard's first stride was a jumping motion—similar to explosive jumping in frogs.Jan 12, 2012
Most lizards breed in the early spring. Male lizards keep their testicles tucked inside their body so it can be hard to know if a lizard is a male or a female. When a male lizard spots a female that he wants to mate with he will go to her directly from the side rather than mounting himself on top of her.Oct 28, 2008
Lizards rely on vision for survival, and their eyes are well developed. A review of the evidence shows that most lizards can see color better than humans can; some will use color to communicate and make decisions, and some can even see colors in very dim light.