#ophisaurus

[herpsandbirds]

Slender Glass Lizard (Ophisaurus attenuatus), family Anguidae, found in the central and eastern U.S.

legless lizard

photograph by Kassie Sheridan

[platycryptus]

This eastern glass lizard (Ophisaurus ventralis) is not a snake, but part of an unrelated group of legless lizards- you can tell because it has eyelids and external ear openings. They also aren‘t nearly as flexible as a real snake, with a more stiff slithering motion and lacking the ability to coil or wrap around things, but their limited degree of bendiness suits them just fine for gliding through the grass in search of crunchy insects and snails.

They‘re called glass lizards not due to their glassy-smooth scales, but because (unlike snakes) they readily shed their tails in sections when threatened, appearing to ‘shatter’ into two or more pieces. This individual is in the process of regenerating its tail and is shorter than normal, but in an intact individual the tail can be longer than the rest of the body and the lizard will basically break in half if handled too roughly.

(Florida, 4/17/23)

[ildarotyrannus]

The extinct sheltopusik Pseudopus pannonicus from the Neogene of Europe for another friend's Birthday. This species has the widest temporal and geographical distribution in the genus Pseudopus: its remains are described from the Upper Miocene-Lower Pleistocene of many European countries, including Spain in the west and Ukraine in the east. Many features of P. pannonicus are also present in modern P. apodus, so these species are sister species. In 2023, new material was described from locations in Moldova, the Northern Caucasus and Ukraine, among these bones is a fairly complete and the largest maxilla known for P. pannonicus, reaching almost 3.7 cm in length, as well as other fragments of skulls, vertebrae and osteoderms, in addition, the dentary of a juvenile individual is described. The entire skull could reach about 100 mm in length, making this species of sheltopusik the largest representative of its genus and Anguinae subfamily, to which the modern sheltopusik, as well as Dopasia, Ophisaurus and Anguis belong. Like its relatives today, it probably had a diet that mainly included animals with hard coats, and given its large size (given the proportions of modern P. apodus, P. pannonicus had a length of about 250 centimeters), then the food base could be much wider, including other reptiles and small mammals. Based on the skeletal reconstruction provided by my friend.

Black ballpoint pen and black colored pencil, 2023.

[rjalker]

the dead glass lizard under the cut. it's a species of legless lizard so it looks like a snake.

[ID: Three photos of a dead legless lizard sitting on a paper towel, with a blue-gloved hand in the third photo for scale, showing it's slightly less thick than the person's thumb, and maybe three times longer than the person's hand, though it is curled slightly. It has dark scales on its back, and a solid yellow belly, with the transition between the two as a smooth line down the side with no gradient. The first photo is a close up of the side of the face, showing the wide face, closed or missing eye, and the rounded nose. There are tiny white scales behind the eye and further back around its ear, which then blend in to the dark grey scales that cover the rest of it. The second photo shows it from the side, showing its back with its head further away.The last photo shows it on its back with the blue glove for scale. End ID.]

[snakeswagbracket]

Bonus Poll: Tricksters!

Serpent of Eden (from painting The Garden of Eden with the Fall of Man by Peter Paul Rubens and Jan Brueghel the Elder) top photo, Ophisaurus bottom photo

The Serpent of Eden appears in the Book of Genesis where it tempts Adam and Eve into eating the 'forbidden fruit' from the "tree of the knowledge of good and evil". Unfortunately the perspective of snakes as sneaky, untrustworthy villains persists in a lot of Western media even today. Which, as we all know, is completely untrue, since in addition to playing a crucial role in their respective ecosystems, snakes really want nothing more than to be able to mind their own business with a cozy place to stay and a fully belly. In fact, as I'm sure many reptile keepers can relate to, if either of my snakes could speak the only thing they would try to tempt me to do is give them an extra mouse or two at feeding time!

Ophisaurus is a genus of several species tha--hey, wait a minute, what do you have? No, don't try to hide it, I see your moveable eyelids and external ear openings! And a fixed jaw?? You're not a snake at all, you're a lizard! No, no, I understand that snakes and lizards both belong to the order Squamata bu--yes, all right I agree that it's very interesting that you can break your tail off when you're threatened and need to make a run for it, but lis--yeah, I know that it's very cool that many species in your genus are named glass lizard because of the way your tail may break into several pieces like glass, but that's not what we're tal--yes, I know it's a great adaptation that the pieces of your tail will keep moving for a while to distract predators. We're not denying you're beautiful, fascinating reptiles! But this is a snake bracket, and no matter how legless and cute you are, you are simply not a snake! Oh, fine, don't look at me like that, I guess you can stay here with the Serpent.

Which of these tricksters exudes the most swaggy snake energy?

The Serpent of Eden

Ophisaurus

Voting ended onMar 3, 2023

[lizardsdaily]

🦎 Mimic Glass Lizard - Ophisaurus mimicus 

📷 Pierson Hill

[great-and-small]

On Christmas day I went out for a walk and I spotted this gorgeous Eastern Glass lizard lying still on the pavement. I think she was killed shortly before I found her, and she has a crushed skull as well as some bodily trauma.

This was kind of a bummer find on Christmas because glass lizards are one of my very favorite reptiles. Although they look very much like snakes, they’re actually lizards that have evolved without legs! A quick way to tell the difference is that legless lizards have eyelids while snakes have none.

I hated to leave this beauty lying in the road so I decided to preserve her as a wet specimen. Hopefully now she can rest peacefully and her body can be used to educate people about her remarkable species.

[turanica]

Eastern Glass Lizard (Ophisaurus ventralis)...at first glance these guys may look like a snake, but closer inspection reveals external ear openings and moveable eyelids, which makes them all lizard. They're also much stiffer than a snake and have a very strong, rigid jaw