What are baby lizards called? Lizard skeleton

Pets living with us in the same apartment or house are becoming more sophisticated and interesting. The classic ones are becoming less and less common: cats, dogs and birds. Increasingly, people are bringing in various insects, arachnids and reptiles. Various kinds of lizards are especially common, and this is not surprising, because many of them are very cute and friendly, which allows each of them to become a replacement for the notorious cat or puppy.

There are a lot of lizards suitable for home habitat. This material contains some of the most popular of them. With a description of their features, as well as photo materials for each type.

Chameleons

  • Yemen chameleon– a fairly popular species, often found as a pet. The reason for such love for the Yemen chameleon was its unpretentiousness in housing conditions and nutrition. Appearance: Adults often reach up to 60 centimeters in length (females are slightly inferior). A chameleon's color changes during periods of stress and pregnancy. Containment conditions: contain this type it is necessary to do it alone, giving the lizard a large terrarium with ventilation. The chameleon feeds on small insects.
  • Three-horned chameleon- not yet so common, but a very bright and noticeable representative of lizards. Appearance: the chameleon justifies its name with its extraordinary appearance; the three-horned chameleon has a bright green color. There are three horns on the head, one straight and two curved. Curved tail used as a hook. Conditions of keeping: the individual should be kept in the same conditions as other chameleons: a large, vertical terrarium, with good ventilation, and solitary.

Agamaceae

monitor lizards

  • Black and white tegu- a typical representative of lizards South America. Appearance: this individual often reaches sizes of up to one and a half meters. This representative of the monitor lizard is a predator, emerging from its hole during the day, eating small and large animals that it can catch up with. Conditions of keeping: to keep this in captivity you will need a truly gigantic terrarium, or better yet a whole pen. The lizard's diet must include chicks, locusts, and rats. Just look at the photo of this “dinosaur” to understand that everything is serious.

Geckos

  • The fat-tailed gecko is a very small and even cute representative of the lizard family. In nature, leads a rather secretive lifestyle. Lives throughout the territory West Africa. Appearance: the size of a gecko rarely exceeds 30 centimeters. Due to its “compactness”, the fat-tailed gecko easily fits even into a small terrarium. Conditions of detention: hundreds of liters are enough to accommodate three females and one male. You can not plant two males in one terrarium. This will lead to a constant struggle for territory. These lizards feed on small insects and artificial, vitamin-rich reptile food.
  • Leopard lizard- Another representative of geckos. Larger, but at the same time more popular among exotic lovers. Appearance: This lizard is not easily called the namesake of the leopard. It is the similar spotted color that causes similar associations and sets it apart from other geckos. The spotted gecko reaches an average of 30 centimeters in length. The gecko is captivating at first sight, take a look at the photo below to see for yourself. Housing conditions: as in the case of the fat-tailed gecko, you can get by with a small terrarium of 60-90 liters and calmly plant a couple of geckos there. These lizards do not need soil.

iguanas

Skinks

  • Blue tongue skink– a very patient and homely lizard, which, despite its “angry” appearance, can become best choice for newbies. Appearance: large animal light color with large scales. Distinctive feature, based on the name, the tongue became blue. Conditions of detention: this species lives in Australia and is prohibited from being exported from there. At the same time, the lizard is available for sale with us, and it feels great at home. A terrarium 100 centimeters long and 50 centimeters wide is perfect.

Domestic lizards
















  • Lizards (Lacertilia, formerly Sauria) are a suborder of the squamate order. The suborder of lizards includes all those species that do not belong to the other two suborders of squamates and two-year-olds.
  • Lizards are widespread throughout the world. They are found on all continents except Antarctica.
  • These are usually small animals with well-developed limbs.

  • About 3800 known modern species lizards, which are grouped into 20 families.
  • The smallest species of lizard, the round-toed lizard from the West Indies, is only 33 mm long and weighs about 1 g, and the largest is the Komodos lizard from Indonesia, which, weighing 135 kg, can reach 3 m in length.
  • Despite the widespread belief that many lizards are venomous, there are only two such species - the escorpion from Mexico and the related vein from the southwestern United States.
  • Most lizards are predators.
  • Species of small and medium size feed mainly on various:,.
  • Large predatory lizards (tegus, monitor lizards) attack small vertebrates: other lizards, snakes, and small mammals, and also eat the eggs of birds and.
  • Moloch lizard eats only.
  • Some large agamidae, iguanas and skink lizards are completely or almost completely herbivorous. Such species eat leaves, young shoots, fruits and flowers.
  • In addition to insects, Madagascar day geckos willingly eat nectar and pollen from flowers and the pulp of juicy ripe ones.
  • Lizards have been living on Earth for hundreds of millions of years. The oldest fossil lizard, called the Lizzie lizard, lived approximately 340 million years ago. She was found in Scotland in March 1988.
  • Some extinct species of lizards were huge. A species of lizard such as Megalania, which lived in Australia about 1 million years ago, reached a length of about 6 m.
  • The humerus and femur bones of lizards are located parallel to the surface of the earth. Therefore, when moving, the body sags and touches the ground with its back part - a reptile, which gave the name to the class - Reptiles.
  • The eyes of most lizards are protected by movable opaque eyelids. They also have a transparent nictitating membrane - a third eyelid, with which the surface of the eye is moistened.
  • Gecko lizards do not have eyelids, so they are forced to periodically wet a special transparent membrane over their eyes with their tongue.
  • In the depression behind the eyes is the eardrum, followed in the bones of the skull by the middle and inner ear. The lizard hears very well. The organ of touch and taste is a long, thin tongue, forked at the end, which the lizard often sticks out of its mouth.
  • The scaly cover of the body protects against water loss and mechanical damage, but interferes with growth and therefore the lizard molts several times during the summer, shedding its skin in parts.
  • What UNIQUELY distinguishes all lizards from snakes? If we talk about limbs, which snakes do not have, then there are also legless lizards. Most lizards have visible openings of the external auditory meatus, which snakes do not have, the eyes of lizards, as a rule, are equipped with movable separate eyelids, while in snakes the eyelids have grown together, forming transparent "lenses" in front of the eyes. However, some lizards lack these signs. It is therefore safer to focus on the features of the internal structure. For example, all lizards, even legless ones, retain at least the rudiments of the sternum and shoulder girdle (the skeletal support of the forelimbs); In snakes, both are completely absent.
  • In lizards leading daytime look life, color vision is a rarity in the animal world.
  • Many species of lizards are capable of throwing off part of their tail (autotomy). The lizard has a lot of enemies, but only its nimble legs and tail can protect it, which it can part with after assessing the extent of the danger. The enemy sees the wriggling tail, this distracts his attention, but the animal has not been around for a long time. If a person grabs the tail, the tail remains in his fingers. In a number of species capable of autotomy, the tail is very brightly colored, and the lizard itself is much more modest in color, which allows it to quickly hide. After some time, the tail is restored, but in a shortened form. During autotomy, special muscles compress the blood vessels in the tail, and almost no bleeding occurs.
  • A lizard without a tail is no longer so fast and nimble; it may lose the ability to reproduce; it climbs and runs poorly due to the lack of a “rudder.” In many lizards, the tail is used to store fat and nutrients, which means that all their energy is concentrated in the tail. After it is torn off, the animal may die from exhaustion. Therefore, a saved lizard often tries to find its tail and eat it in order to restore lost strength. There is no complete regeneration. The new tail is always worse than the original one. He has poor flexibility, shorter length and his movements are not as dexterous.
  • Sometimes the lizard's tail is not completely torn off and is gradually restored. But the separation plane is damaged, which gives impetus to the formation of a new tail. This is how a lizard with two tails appears.
  • In many climbing forms, such as geckos, anoles and some skinks, the lower surface of the fingers is expanded into a pad covered with setae - hair-like branched outgrowths of the outer layer of the skin. These bristles catch on the slightest irregularities in the substrate, which allows the animal to move along a vertical surface and even upside down.
  • Most often, lizards live in pairs. For the winter and at night they hide in burrows, under stones and in other places.
  • Most lizards lay eggs. Lizard eggs have a thin leathery shell, less often, as a rule, in geckos - calcareous, dense. In different species, the number of eggs can vary from 1-2 to several dozen.
  • They always lay eggs in the most secluded places - in cracks, under snags, etc.
  • Some geckos glue eggs to tree trunks and branches, and on rocks.
  • As a rule, after laying eggs, lizards do not return to them.
  • Only a few species, for example, female yellowbellies, protect the clutch and look after it, and after the appearance of young yellowbellies they continue to protect them and even feed them.
  • A minority of lizards are ovoviviparous. Their eggs, devoid of a dense shell, develop inside the mother’s body, and the cubs are born alive, freeing themselves from the thin film that covers them in the oviducts or immediately after birth.
  • True viviparity has been established only in the American night lizards Xanthusia and in some skinks.
  • Viviparity during reproduction is usually associated with harsh living conditions, for example, living in the far north or high in the mountains.
  • The largest lizard was the monitor lizard, exhibited in 1937 at the St. Louis Zoo, Missouri, USA. Its length was 3.10 m, and its weight was 166 kg.
  • The longest lizard is the thin-bodied Salvador monitor lizard, or musk deer (Varanus salvadorii), from Papua New Guinea. It is precisely measured to reach a length of 4.75 m, but approximately 70% of its total length is in the tail.
  • The fastest lizard is the iguana. The highest speed of movement on land - 34.9 km/h - was recorded in the black iguana (Ctenosaura), living in Costa Rica.
  • The longest living is the brittle lizard. A male brittle lizard (Anguis fragilis) lived at the Zoological Museum in Copenhagen, Denmark, for over 54 years, from 1892 to 1946.
  • The toad lizard belongs to the family of iguanas that live in the deserts of America. Therefore, the color of lizards is either sand or stone, so that it is easy to camouflage. Toad-shaped lizards live in open areas; over the years of their existence, they have developed many methods of defense. First of all, they will try to freeze in place, hoping that the camouflage coloration will hide them from the predator, then they will jerk. If it is not possible to hide, the lizard begins to attack, first it will stretch out on its paws and swell up like a toad, this is where its name comes from, its size increases by 2 times, but if this does not scare off the enemy, the lizard goes to extreme measures: it shoots bleeding from the eyes, aiming for the predator's face. Her blood contains poisonous and toxic substances, which causes the predator to retreat.
  • Lizard two-headed short-tailed skink

The most common group of the reptile class are lizards, of which there are almost six thousand species. They differ in size, color and habits. Even if we do not take into account the fact that new species of lizards are regularly discovered, the names and photographs of all the animals of this suborder would still not be possible to fit into one article. Let's meet only representatives of this group.

Types of lizards: names and photos

The suborder of lizards is divided into six infraorders, including 37 families. Introducing one by one entertaining look from each infra-detachment.

  1. Iguanas . The most famous representative of iguanas is the Yemen chameleon. The species is distinguished by its large size among chameleons. Males reach a length of 60 cm. Characteristic feature representatives of this family have the ability to mimicry. They change body color for camouflage purposes. The Yemen chameleon turns brown when threatened. However, don't expect him to bright colors- for such a spectacle you will have to take a closer look at other species.


  2. Skinks . The Crimean lizard is found in Moldova, Black Sea Russia (Republic of Crimea), the Balkan Peninsula and the Ionian Islands. It reaches twenty centimeters in length. The color is brown or green with dark rows of longitudinal spots. It has the ability to shed its tail and grow a new one, like all representatives of the True lizard family.

  3. Monitor lizards . In addition to extinct sea ​​predators The mosasaurian infraorder also includes the largest modern lizard - the Komodo dragon, which grows up to three meters in length and reaches a weight of more than 80 kg. At an early age they feed on eggs, birds, and small animals. Over time they switch to more big catch. At one time, the Komodo dragon is able to eat an amount of meat equal to 80% of its own weight. Thanks to its elastic stomach and movable bone joints, this species swallows an animal the size of a goat whole.


  4. Gecko-like. Madagascar day gecko or green felsuma is one of the largest representatives of his family. Individuals of this species reach up to 30.5 cm in length. The color is bright green. Most Their lives, not exceeding ten years, are spent on trees in search of insects, fruits and flower nectar, which constitute the main diet of green felsum.


  5. Vermiformes . Representatives of the vermiform infraorder bear little resemblance to lizards familiar to the average person. A typical representative - the American worm-like lizard - has no legs, no eyes, no ears. The animal does not even resemble a snake, but rather an earthworm, but they have no family ties with the latter. American vermiform lizards lead a burrowing lifestyle, representing another amazing branch of lizard evolution.

  6. Fusiformes . Representatives of this infra-detachment also decided to give up their extra limbs. The brittle spindle, or copperhead, is often confused with the copperhead snake from the family Colubridae. This species of lizard is easily tamed by humans and lives in captivity twice as long as in the wild, being protected from natural enemies.

Lizard Reproduction

With rare exceptions, lizards reproduce sexually. Otherwise, parthenogenesis takes place, in which the offspring develops from the egg of the female without the participation of the male. All lizards are oviparous. However, some of them lay shelled eggs, from which, after a while, cubs appear. Other species are ovoviviparous. The young hatch from the eggs just before leaving the female's body. Representatives of lizard species that are small in size die immediately after laying or giving birth to cubs.

Breeding in captivity requires a calm environment for animals, as stress significantly reduces the reproductive function of lizards.

Sometimes it is possible to identify different types of lizards based on their name and photo. However, some related species are so similar that only a specialist can recognize them. Looking at other lizards, an uninitiated person will rank them among other groups of animals. Biological research family ties between representatives of this suborder of reptiles.

Types of lizards, names and photos of their subspecies are interesting not only for professional herpetologists and terrariumists, but also for everyone who likes to observe the nature of our planet, marveling at the amazing diversity of the animal world. The diversity of lizards from blind burrowing creatures to three-meter predatory giants is just an echo former greatness this group when ancient mosasaurs roamed the oceans. The largest species of this extinct family, Hoffmann's mosasaurus, could reach a length of almost twenty meters and was the king of the sea predators of the end Cretaceous period. Impressive lizard, isn't it?

LIZARDS
(Lacertilia, Sauria),
suborder of reptiles. As a rule, small animals with well-developed limbs, the closest relatives of snakes. Together they form a separate evolutionary lineage of reptiles. Main hallmark its representatives are the paired copulatory organs of the male (hemipenises), located on both sides of the anus at the base of the tail. These are tubular formations that can turn out or retract inward like the fingers of a glove. The inverted hemipenises serve for internal fertilization of the female during mating. Lizards and snakes form a squamous squad - Squamata (from Latin squama - scales, as a sign that the body of these reptiles is covered with small scales). One of the recurring trends in the evolution of its representatives was the reduction or loss of limbs. Snakes, one of the lines of squamates with reduced limbs, form the suborder Serpentes. The suborder of lizards combines several very different evolutionary lines. For simplicity, we can say that “lizards” are all scaly animals, except snakes. Most lizards have two pairs of limbs, visible openings of the external auditory canal, and a movable eyelid; but some of them lack these signs (like all snakes). Therefore, it is more reliable to focus on the features of the internal structure. For example, all lizards, even legless ones, retain at least the rudiments of the sternum and shoulder girdle (the skeletal support of the forelimbs); Both of these are completely absent in snakes.
Distribution and some species. Lizards are widespread throughout the world. Absent from Antarctica, they are found from the southern tip of other continents to southern Canada in North America and to the Arctic Circle in that part of Europe where the climate is tempered by warm ocean currents. Lizards are found from below sea level, for example in Death Valley in California, up to 5500 m above sea level in the Himalayas. Known approx. 3800 of their modern species. The smallest of them is the round-toed gecko (Sphaerodactylus elegans) from the West Indies, only 33 mm long and weighing about 1 g, and the largest is the Komodo dragon (Varanus komodoensis) from Indonesia, which can reach 3 m in length with a weight of 135 kg. Despite the widespread belief that many lizards are poisonous, there are only two such species - the vest (Heloderma suspectum) from the southwestern United States and the related escorpion (H. horridum) from Mexico.















Paleontological history. The most ancient fossil remains of lizards date back to the late Jurassic (about 160 million years ago). Some of their extinct species were enormous in size. It is believed that Megalania, which lived in Australia in the Pleistocene (about 1 million years ago), reached a length of approx. 6 m; and the largest of the mosasaurs (a fossil family of long, slender fish-like aquatic lizards related to monitor lizards) is 11.5 m. Mosasaurs inhabited coastal sea ​​waters various parts of the planet approx. 85 million years ago. The closest modern relative of lizards and snakes is the rather large tuatara, or tuatara (Sphenodon punctatus), from New Zealand.
Appearance. The background color of the back and sides of most lizards is green, brown, gray or black, often with a pattern in the form of longitudinal and transverse stripes or spots. Many species are able to change color or its brightness due to the dispersion and aggregation of pigment in special skin cells called melanophores. The scales can be both small and large; they can be located close to each other (like tiles) or overlapping (like tiles). Sometimes they are transformed into spines or ridges. Some lizards, such as skinks, have bony plates called osteoderms inside their horny scales, which give the integument additional strength. All lizards molt periodically, shedding their outer layer of skin. The limbs of lizards are designed differently, depending on the lifestyle of the species and the surface of the substrate on which it usually moves. In many climbing forms, such as anoles, geckos and some skinks, the lower surface of the fingers is expanded into a pad covered with setae - branched hair-like outgrowths of the outer layer of the skin. These bristles catch on the slightest irregularities in the substrate, which allows the animal to move along a vertical surface and even upside down. Both the upper and lower jaws of lizards are equipped with teeth, and in some they are also located on the palatine bones (the roof of the oral cavity). The teeth are held on the jaws in two ways: acrodontally, almost completely fused with the bone, usually along its edge and not replacing, or pleurodontally - loosely attached to inside bones and changing regularly. Agamas, amphisbaenas and chameleons are the only modern lizards with acrodont teeth.
Sense organs. The eyes of lizards are developed differently, depending on the species - from large and well-seeing in diurnal forms to small, degenerate and covered with scales in some burrowing taxa. Most have a movable scaly eyelid (lower eyelid only). Some medium-sized lizards have a transparent “window” on it. In a number of small species it occupies most or the entire area of ​​the eyelid, attached to the upper edge of the eye, so that it is constantly closed, but sees as if through glass. Such “glasses” are characteristic of most geckos, many skinks and some other lizards, whose gaze as a result is unblinking, like that of snakes. Lizards with a movable eyelid have a thin nictitating membrane, or third eyelid, underneath it. This is a transparent film that can move from side to side. Many lizards have retained the parietal “third eye” characteristic of their ancestors, which is not capable of perceiving shape, but distinguishes between light and darkness. It is believed to be sensitive to ultraviolet radiation and helps regulate sun exposure as well as other behaviors. Most lizards have a noticeable opening in the shallow external auditory canal, which ends in the eardrum. These reptiles perceive sound waves with a frequency of 400 to 1500 Hz. Some groups of lizards have lost their auditory opening: it is either covered with scales or has disappeared as a result of narrowing of the auditory canal and eardrum. In general, these “earless” forms can perceive sounds, but, as a rule, worse than the “eared” ones. The Jacobson (vomeronasal) organ is a chemoreceptor structure located in the anterior part of the palate. It consists of a pair of chambers that open into the oral cavity with two small holes. With its help, lizards can determine chemical composition substances in the mouth and, more importantly, in the air and landing on their protruding tongue. Its tip is brought to the Jacobson's organ, the animal "tastes" the air (for example, to the proximity of prey or danger) and reacts accordingly.
Reproduction. Initially, lizards belong to oviparous animals, i.e. lay shell-covered eggs that develop for several weeks outside the mother's body before hatching. However, many groups of lizards have developed ovoviviparity. Their eggs are not shelled and remain in the female’s oviducts until completion. embryonic development, and the already “hatched” cubs are born. Only the widespread South American skinks of the genus Mabuya can be considered truly viviparous. Their tiny, yolkless eggs develop in the oviducts, probably fed by the mother through the placenta. The placenta in lizards is a special temporary formation on the wall of the oviduct, in which the capillaries of the mother and the embryo come close enough to each other so that the latter receives oxygen from her blood and nutrients. The number of eggs or young in a brood varies from one (in large iguanas) to 40-50. In several groups, for example, in most geckos, it is constant and equal to two, and in skinks and a number of American tropical geckos, there is always only one cub in the brood. Age of puberty and life expectancy. Puberty in lizards generally correlates with body size; in small species it lasts less than a year, in large species it lasts several years. In some small forms, most adults die after laying eggs. Many large lizards live up to 10 years or more, and one copperhead, or brittle spindle (Anguis fragilis), reached 54 years of age in captivity.
Enemies and methods of defense. Lizards are attacked by almost all animals that can grab and defeat them. These are snakes, birds of prey, mammals and humans. Methods to protect yourself from predators include morphological adaptations and special behavioral techniques. If you get too close to some lizards, they will take on a threatening pose. For example, the Australian frilled lizard (Chlamydosaurus kingii) suddenly opens its mouth and raises a wide, bright collar formed by a fold of skin on its neck. Obviously, the effect of surprise plays a role in scaring off enemies. If many lizards are grabbed by the tail, they throw it away, leaving the enemy with a wriggling piece of debris that distracts his attention. This process, known as autotomy, is facilitated by the presence of a thin non-ossifying zone in the middle of all caudal vertebrae except those closest to the trunk. The tail is then regenerated.

Collier Encyclopedia. - Open society. 2000 .

See what "LIZARDS" is in other dictionaries:

    - (Saurra), suborder of squamates. Appeared in the Triassic. Ancestors of snakes. The body is ridged, flattened, laterally compressed or cylindrical, of various colors. Skin covered with horny scales. Dl. from 3.5 cm to 4 m (monitor lizards). The front part of the skull is not... ... Biological encyclopedic dictionary

    Suborder of reptiles of the order Squamate. The body ranges from a few cm to 3 m or more in length (Komodo dragon), covered with keratinized scales. Most have well-developed limbs. More than 3900 species, on all continents except Antarctica,... ... Big encyclopedic Dictionary

    - (Lacertilia s. Sauria) reptiles with an anus in the form of a transverse slit (Plagiotremata), with a paired copulatory organ, teeth not in meshes; usually equipped with a front girdle and always have a sternum; in most cases with 4 limbs,... ... Encyclopedia of Brockhaus and Efron

    The request for "Lizard" is redirected here; see also other meanings. ? Lizards ... Wikipedia

    - (Sauria) suborder (or order) of reptiles of the order (or subclass) squamate. Body length from 3.5 cm to 3 m (Komodo dragon). The body is ridged, flattened, laterally compressed or cylindrical. Some have well-developed five-fingered... ... Great Soviet Encyclopedia

    Lizards->) and a female. /> Viviparous lizards: male () and female. Viviparous lizards. Lizards, suborder of animals class. They are distinguished by the presence of limbs () and movable eyelids. Length from 3.5 cm to 4 m. The body is covered with keratinized scales. Ya are distributed to... ... Encyclopedia "Animals in the House"

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