Animals trivia | 60 facts about the lizards

Lizards are considered weird yet really adaptive animals. But how many things do we know about the lizards?

Well, we are about to learn more about the lizards!

1. Lizards are a widespread group of squamate reptiles.
2. There are over 4,675 species of lizard, according to the San Diego Zoo.
3. Others sources mention there are about 6,000 species.
4. They range across all continents except Antarctica, as well as most oceanic island chains.
5. The group is paraphyletic as it excludes the snakes and Amphisbaenia.
6. Some lizards are more closely related to these two excluded groups than they are to other lizards.
7. Lizards range in size from chameleons and geckos a few centimeters long to the 3 meter long Komodo dragon.
8. Most lizards are quadrupedal, running with a strong side-to-side motion.
9. Others are legless, and have long snake-like bodies.
10. Some such as the forest-dwelling Draco lizards are able to glide.
11. They are often territorial.
12. The males are fighting off other males and signalling, often with brightly colours, to attract mates and to intimidate rivals.
13. Lizards are mainly carnivorous, often being sit-and-wait predators.
14. Many smaller species eat insects, while the Komodo eats mammals as big as water buffalo.
15. Lizards make use of a variety of antipredator adaptations, including venom, camouflage, reflex bleeding, and the ability to sacrifice and regrow their tails.
16. Some lizards live in trees.
17. Others prefer to live in vegetation on the ground, while others live in deserts among rocks.
18. For example, the Texas horned lizard is found in the warm areas with little plant cover in southern North America.
19. The northern fence lizard, on the other hand, likes to live in cool pine forests in northern North America.
20. Lizards are cold-blooded animals.
21. That means they rely on their environment to help warm their bodies.
22. They use the heat of the sun to raise their body temperatures and are active when their bodies are warm.
23. The sun also helps lizards produce vitamin D.
24. Their days are spent sun-bathing on rocks, hunting for food or waiting for food to come their way.
25. Some lizards can easily live with dozens of other lizards of many different species.
26. They are not social animals though.
27. A lizard’s scaly skin does not grow as the animal ages.
28. Most lizards shed their skin, or molt, in large flakes.
29. Lizards also have the ability to break off part of their tails when a predator grabs it.
30. Also, their skin usually changes color according to the environment they are located to, as a form of adaptivity.
31. This also helps them protect themselves from their predators.
32. Lizards eat ants, spiders, termites, cicadas, small mammals and even other lizards.
33. Caiman lizards eat animals with shells, such as snails.
34. Other lizards are omnivores, which means they eat vegetation and meat.
35. One example of an omnivore lizard is Clark’s spiny lizard.
36. These lizards like fruits, leaves and vegetables.
37. Iguana, which lives in the Galapagos Islands, eats algae from the sea.
38. Iguanas and spiny-tailed agamids also eat plants.
39. Many lizards lay eggs while others bear live young.
40. For example, frilled lizards lay eight to 23 eggs, according to National Geographic
41. The gestation for a lizard egg can last up to 12 months.
42. Most baby lizards are self-sufficient from birth and are able to walk, run and feed on their own.
43. The young reach maturity at 18 months to 7 years, depending on the species.
44. Some lizards can live up to 50 years.
45. The green basilisk lizard can run on water at about 5 feet (1.5 m) per second for 15 feet (4.5 m), or more according to National Geographic.
46. Their special feet give them more surface area to hold them up and as they run, they create air bubbles that keep them afloat.
47. Chameleons’ tongues are longer than their bodies.
48. Also, their eyes can look in two different directions at once.
49. You can shine a light in a banded gecko’s ear and the light will come out the other side, according to the American Museum of Natural History.
50. Two species — the Mexican beaded lizard of western Mexico and the Gila monster of the southwestern United States and northwestern Mexico, are venomous, according to Encyclopedia Britannica.
51. Frill neck lizards have a large, round collar of skin that pops up when they are trying to intimidate attackers.
52. Lizards do have eyelids.
53. They can actually move them very easily and voluntarily.
54. This is one of the few difference between lizards, and the snakes. In general, these animals don’t have many differences.
55. Many types of lizards do not need to be close to water in order to survive.
56. This happens because they often absorb all the water they need from their food.
57. Some lizard species have a really harsh bite.
58. The Komodo dragon is the only type of lizard which is dangerous to humans and which is capable of causing death to them.
59. Komodo lizards lives in Indonesia.
60. It can grow up to 10 feet in length, and one bite from this type of lizard is enough to kill a human.