My Science School

Sometimes it is hard to tell whether an animal is a lizard or not. Some lizards look like snakes, and some look a lot like worms.

There are three things that all lizards have. They all have eyelids that close, ears on their heads, and long tails. Most lizards also have four legs. But a few lizards, such as glass snakes and slow worms, have no legs at all.

Lizards are reptiles that live on the ground or in trees. Most live in warm, tropical regions, but some live in areas with cold winters. A lizard’s scaly skin helps keep moisture inside its body even when the weather is very hot.

Like other reptiles, lizards are cold-blooded. But like some warm-blooded animals, some lizards hibernate, or sleep through the cold winter months.

Picture Credit : Google

Snakes have no legs at all, but they move very well without them! A snake can zigzag over the ground just about as fast as most people can walk.

Snakes are different from lizards because they have no ears and no eyelids. And to smell, a snake flicks out its tongue! Snakes use their good sense of smell to find their food.

Most snakes like their food alive. They eat many kinds of small animals - even other snakes. Snakes don’t chew their food - they swallow it whole. Their jaws are hinged like a pair of nutcrackers. For a great big mouthful, they can release the hinges and open their mouths very wide. In fact, a little garden snake can swallow a whole frog! The African egg-eating snake can swallow an egg bigger than its own head. And a big python can swallow a whole pig, hoofs and all!

Pythons curl themselves around their prey and squeeze it to death. Other snakes, such as vipers and rattlesnakes, have poison glands. Hollow teeth, or fangs, inject the poison into the victim’s body. Some kinds of cobras squirt poison at an attacker’s eye.

Picture Credit : Google