The exception to this is with the alligator lizard, which may shed its skin in one piece, like a snake. Instead, most lizards shed, or molt, their old skin in large flakes to make way for the new skin growth underneath. Lizards have dry, scaly skin that does not grow with their bodies. Even so, lizards can’t hear as well as we do, but their hearing is better than that of snakes. Instead, they have visible ear openings to catch sound, and their eardrums are just below the surface of their skin.
Lizards don’t have earflaps like mammals do. The lizard can use these scent “clues” to find food or a mate or to detect enemies. Lizards smell stuff with their tongues! Just like snakes, a lizard sticks out its tongue to catch scent particles in the air and then pulls back its tongue and places those particles on the roof of its mouth, where there are special sensory cells. Blue-tongued skink using his eponymous tongue to smell. Their colorful body parts allow them to communicate with each other and help them tell which are male and which are female. Many lizards, such as iguanas, can see in color. But some lizards, like geckos, can’t blink! Instead, they have a clear membrane that shields their eyes from dirt or bright sun and use their tongue to clean their eyes. Most lizards have eyelids, just like we do, that clean and protect their eyes when they blink. Geckos, like this banded-knob tailed gecko, have clear membrane shields over their eyes in lieu of eyelids.
There are currently over 4,675 lizard species, including iguanas, chameleons, geckos, Gila monsters, monitors, and skinks. Unlike snakes, most lizards have moveable eyelids. In general, lizards have a small head, short neck, and long body and tail. Their ancestors appeared on Earth over 200 million years ago. In fact, some lizards, called sheltopusiks, look like snakes because they have no legs! Many lizards today resemble the ancient reptiles of the dinosaur era. What is a lizard? Lizards are part of a group of animals known as reptiles.
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