Category Plants & Animals

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.

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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.

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Turtles and tortoises are reptiles with shells on their backs. Most can pull their heads, legs, and tails inside the shell for protection.

Many turtles spend a lot of time in the water. They can swim much better than they can walk. The sea turtle spends almost all its time in the water and has strong flippers for swimming. These turtles eat animals and plants.

Tortoises are turtles that live only on land. They have club-like legs for walking on sand, mud, or grass. The shells of most tortoises are tall and round, while the shells of many other turtles are flat to help them glide through water. Most tortoises eat plants.

Turtles don’t watch over their eggs before they hatch. Female turtles dig holes in the mud or sand. They lay their eggs in the holes, then cover up the eggs and go away. The warm sun hatches the eggs, and the babies dig their own way out.

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It’s the middle of the night in the desert. A small lizard lies almost covered with sand. Only its head sticks out. It is using the sand like a blanket to keep its body warm during the cool night.

When the sun comes up, the lizard crawls out of the sand. It moves very slowly because it is still cold. It lies on a rock for a long time, letting the sun warm it. When its body is warm enough, the lizard dashes off to look for food.

Lizards and all other reptiles are cold-blooded. Their bodies get just as hot or cold as the air or water around them. If their bodies get cold, reptiles can’t move well. If they get too hot, reptiles die. So reptiles must spend their time playing hide-and-seek with the sun. If they are cold, they lie in warm sunshine. If they are hot, they hurry into the shade.

A reptile that lives where winters are cold moves more and more slowly as cold weather comes. The reptile curls up in the warmest hole it can find. Soon its body grows cold and stiff. It cannot move at all. Only when warm weather returns can the reptile move again.

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Have you ever seen a big, fat frog? Did its bulging eyes and raspy croak make you laugh?

Have you ever seen a tiny garden snake zipping through the grass? Were you amazed at how fast it could travel with no feet?

Snakes and frogs belong to two groups of animals called reptiles and amphibians.

Amphibians and reptiles slither, scamper, hop, or swim. Some hiss, some croak, and some make no sound at all. Some amphibians have scaly skin that feels like tree bark. Some snakes have skin that feels like warm glass. Some frogs are slimy, but most snakes are not.

Amphibians and reptiles live all over the world – in woodland forests and rain forests, the Australian outback and the African plains, and maybe in your own garden.

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Suppose you found some eggs lying on the ground. Now suppose that some little creatures with scales hatched out of them. What kind of animal would they be?

Could they be fish? Fish have scaly skin, but fish eggs do not have hard shells. Besides, most fish lay their eggs in water. So they could not be fish.

Could they be birds? Birds lay eggs, too. But birds don’t have such scaly skin. So they could not be birds.

They must be reptiles. Only reptiles have scaly skin and lay their eggs on land. Alligators, crocodiles, lizards, snakes, turtles, and tuataras are all reptiles.

Picture Credit : Google