World Lizard Day

Today is World Lizard Day!

Lizards are cold-blooded animals, mostly members of the order Squamata. There are about 7,000 species of lizards, living all over the world, except for Antartica, naturally.

Lizards tend to have four limbs, and move in a side-to-side motion. However, there are some species of lizards that are legless like snakes. They're still considered lizards because they lack some of the features of snakes, like having eyelids, long tails (snakes have short tails and long bodies), and their lungs are equal in size (snakes have a short lung and a very long one). A lizard will also typically have a short neck that elevates the head. They also can regrow their tails if they get broken off.

Most lizards are small animals, but they still can vary greatly in size. For example, the Nosy Hara leaf chameleon can be a few centimeters long, and the Komodo dragon can be three meters long. Lizards can also have a wide variety of diets depending on where they live. The majority of lizards are predatory animals. They can be carnivorous, omnivorous, herbivorous, even insectivorous. Some species of lizards have variable teeth. What that means is that they have teeth that can do different things, like humans have.

Most lizards lay eggs to hatch their young. The number and size of the eggs can depend on the species. Unlike mammals, lizards do not raise their young, often abandoning the eggs after they are laid. There are some species that do have live births, though. The gender of the babies can be dependent on the ambient temperature. Lower temperatures produce more females while higher ones produce more males.

Lizards are predators, but they can be prey themselves. And they have a variety of ways to protect themselves from predators. Lizards are fast and agile, allowing them to flee predators. They can also shed their tails to help distract predators. And horned lizards can squirt blood from special pouches under their eyes. This blood contains toxic compounds. 

Most lizards are generally harmless to humans, but the Komodo dragon has been known to stalk and attack humans. In fact, some are kept as pets. I'd like to have a pet chameleon myself. Chameleons are neat. 

Lizards are part of mythologies and folktales all over the world. For example, Hawaiian myth has a lizard king named Mo'o. African folklore links them to ancestral figures.

So yeah, lizards are pretty cool! If you want to learn more cool lizard facts, you can read some here. Thanks for reading this blog entry! If you liked it, show it off! Take care of yourselves and each other! See you next time!