New Legless Lizard Species Found in the Brazilian Cerrado

• Xopl
  April 29th, 2008 at 2:04 pm

  So…. you mean… a snake.

• glassmusic
  April 29th, 2008 at 2:12 pm

  I hear they also found a four legged snake! It has a tongue that shoots out at rapid speeds to catch flies and insects.

  What a crazy world we live in!

• Tempscire
  April 29th, 2008 at 2:21 pm

  And I thought I was just spending too much time online when my first thought was in praise of precise taxonomy that could recognize this as a lizard and not a snake as other wits would assume.

  There’s more to distinguish the two than just legs. Eyelids and ears, for instances. Snakes don’t have them.

• DanO
  April 29th, 2008 at 2:22 pm

  yeah, how is that not a snake?

• Xopl
  April 29th, 2008 at 2:23 pm

  SNAKES DON’T HAVE FRIGGEN EYELIDS?!??!?!?!?!!?!?!?!?

  nightmares

• CheeseDuck
  April 29th, 2008 at 2:25 pm

  Wow. Nice legless snake.

• Video Game Dork
  April 29th, 2008 at 2:28 pm

  seems like a snake to me. there may be non-easily observable differences that make it smiliar to a lizard, but i think the ‘legs vs no legs’ should really be the deciding factor for the “lizard or snake” question.

• Cute Dyke
  April 29th, 2008 at 2:40 pm

  This strange lizards seem to be snakes, if you look at them.

  I hope they have good manners !

• ashes
  April 29th, 2008 at 2:41 pm

  This is a lizard,. just because they named it in the genus bachia…
  the family above that is gymnophthalmidae (say that 10 x fast)
  wiki sez:
  ” Gymnophthalmidae is a family of lizards, sometimes known as spectacled lizards or microteiids.

  They are called ’spectacled’ because of their transparent lower eyelids, so they can still see with closed eyes. The eyelids are not fixed, like most geckos and all snakes. These lizards live in a wide variety of habitats, from desert to mountain to rain forest, throughout Central America and South America. Spectacled lizards are related with the Teiidae, but they look like skinks; reduced limbs and smooth scales, some species have no limbs at all. They eat mostly insects and other invertebrates, all species are oviparous.”

  does this explain things?

• JoBo S
  April 29th, 2008 at 2:50 pm

  That really does ashes. So it is a snake with the abilities of a lizard.

• Rich
  April 29th, 2008 at 2:52 pm

  So it’s not so much the legs - but eyelids and ear holes that make the difference between a lizard and a snake?

  Bugs, snakes and fish… the supreme staring contest champions.

• Homer Jay
  April 29th, 2008 at 2:54 pm

  So whats the difference between a legless lizard and a snake?

• Tempscire
  April 29th, 2008 at 2:55 pm

  Ahh, the level of scientific understanding of the masses.

• BoT
  April 29th, 2008 at 2:56 pm

  It’s not a snake in the same way that a person born without arms or legs is not a snake. I hope that cleared it up for you.

• Ben Eshbach
  April 29th, 2008 at 3:05 pm

  Remember the days before Wikipedia when you couldn’t Google “legless lizard” and then pop into a forum and pretend you knew all along?

• Jonna
  April 29th, 2008 at 3:17 pm

  Ok, this may be really stupid, but isn’t a legless lizard a snake? Looks like a snake to me.

• The Slapster
  April 29th, 2008 at 3:47 pm

  @ All the Comments AFTER it’s been fully explained: Man, reading comprehension has dropped this far? Can’t be long before we’re all ruled by - legless lizards!

• sam
  April 29th, 2008 at 4:00 pm

  Hey guys - check out this other snake: http://activerain.com/image_store/uploads/1/1/0/2/9/ar118646084992011. jpg

• Rich
  April 29th, 2008 at 4:04 pm

  I won’t be convinced he’s truly legless until the breathalyzer results come in…

• Sammy
  April 29th, 2008 at 4:13 pm

  SO does this mean it has the abilities of a snake AND a lizard? Like it can detach its tail then eat a whole mouse?

• Josh
  April 29th, 2008 at 4:21 pm

  Legless lizards lost their legs secondarily. That is to say, they evolved in to lizards (with 4 legs) then over time lost their legs. Hence they are lizards. Aside from having eyelids and ear holes (which snakes do not have), these lizards have subtler morphological and genetic information that, upon a phylogenetic analysis, would clearly show that these organisms are much more related to lizards than snakes.

  By the logic of the people posting here (scientific knowledge of the masses indeed), a bat would be a bird, not a mammal, because it has wings and can fly…

• ashes
  April 29th, 2008 at 4:28 pm

  lol i never claimed to know. i didnt know so i looked it up in wiki and reported my findings because i found it interesting. not everyone is out to be a know it all. some of us try and help

• Erik
  April 29th, 2008 at 4:31 pm

  That’s a lizard like a tomato is a fruit. I mean, I’m sure there’s some scientific reason why that is classified as a lizard, but it really doesn’t look like a lizard with no legs at all.

• Lore
  April 29th, 2008 at 4:54 pm

  If I were to see this thing out in the wild my first instinct is not to call it a legless lizard instead of a snake no matter if it has eye lids or not. It looks like a snake and slithers like a snake I’m going to think it’s a snake regardless of the scientific explanations.

• lynne
  April 29th, 2008 at 5:19 pm

  I don’t care what it is, it would not be welcome in my home.

• TechSupport
  April 29th, 2008 at 5:38 pm

  So it’s a lizard without legs.

  NOT a snake with ears and eyelids.

• Tempscire
  April 29th, 2008 at 5:48 pm

  Hey, Ben, some of us may have just taken biology courses more recently than freshman year in high school, years and years ago.

  /e.g., me (biology minor)
  //not that you have to believe that either. Anyway, even for those who looked it up, ’tis better to enlighten oneself than to wallow in self-righteous ignorance.

• meghan
  April 29th, 2008 at 5:50 pm

  If you touch them, they actually feel very different than snakes. They’re not nearly as flexible and you can actually feel their vestigial legs under their skin. Weird creatures, but if you see them side-by-side in person, it’s pretty easy to tell them apart from snakes.

• HoolaGirl
  April 29th, 2008 at 6:09 pm

  Thank you, Meghan.

• Edward
  April 29th, 2008 at 7:30 pm

  What do you call a legless lizard that is sitting outside your door?

  Matt!

  What do you call a legless lizard that is hanging on your wall?

  Art!

  .
  .
  .

• ted
  April 29th, 2008 at 8:35 pm

  Fricking pedants.
  Who cares if most people would call it a snake?

  This just proves the biblical story about how the snake lost his limbs in the Garden of Eden. This is obviously a descendant of that type of snake.

  You just can’t defy the proofs of Creationism.

• Moshe
  April 29th, 2008 at 9:11 pm

  Legless lizards have distinct eyelids, quite visible ear holes, and non-forked tongues; sometimes vestigial limbs are detectable. Although they may look like snakes at first glance, they are really quite different.

  If you ever happen to see a legless lizard in the wild, you will be able to tell that it is not a snake purely based on its movement:

  http://video.google.com/videosearch?hl=en&q=legless%20lizard&um=1&ie=U TF-8&sa=N&tab=wv

• Ashley
  April 29th, 2008 at 10:10 pm

  Yay for Josh. Nicely said.

  …I have nothing new to contribute, but as a science major in college at the moment, I concur with the above pro-science statements. And even if people did wikipedia it (or, heaven forbid, a real encyclopedia, since people never used those in the pre-internet days), that’s still better than just looking at it and saying “looks like a snake, so it must be, and that’s that!”.

• caitlin13
  April 30th, 2008 at 12:27 am

  I lol’d for 5 minutes at Xopl’s comment.

• just a guy
  April 30th, 2008 at 1:03 am

  yeah, the ‘armless human = snake’ argument was pretty much negated when ‘Video Gmae Dork’ emphasized

  “”the ‘legs vs no legs’ should really be the deciding factor for the **“lizard or snake”** question.”"

  ..not ’snake or anything else’ question..

• ashes
  April 30th, 2008 at 1:09 am

  ted……
  it sounds more like it proves evolution than creationism.
  this lizard evolved so that it could more easily move in the sand by losing its legs. As meghan said before when you hold this lizard you can feel the vestigal leg. If the snake in the garden of eden’s legs simply fell off why is there still a growth on the lizard where the legs used to be? …Perhaps its because evolution hasnt completely gotten rid of this appendage in this lizard. I’m sure if we traced this lizard in the fossil record…..I doubt it would show that suddenly around the time the bible says adam and eve existed this animal just LOST its legs. It would be a slow evolution. The legs getting smaller and smaller over many many many years. Fossil records would show this.

• Camilla
  April 30th, 2008 at 3:48 am

  I wonder if this many people would be shouting “IT’S A FISH” if a new whale was found.

  “BUT THEY’RE VISUALLY TEH SAEM!!!1!!111 LOL”

• clairmonde
  April 30th, 2008 at 4:38 am

  Thanks for the knowledge everyone! Where do other legless lizards live? I am wondering if I’ve never heard of a legless lizard because I’ve never met one before. And really I don’t ever care to meet one because yeah I am a weenie!

• Rich
  April 30th, 2008 at 9:23 am

  Camilla…

  Not necessarily a fish, as I suspect that cetaceans have eyelids, and if you hold them right you might detect their vestigial limbs.

• koo-koo koo-koo
  April 30th, 2008 at 10:21 am

  omg…is this site flooded with creationists or something?

  SMH at not getting the concept of a legless lizard…wow…There is a lot more to being a snake than just a reptile with no legs. idiots.

  lol, this comment was spot on:

  “I wonder if this many people would be shouting “IT’S A FISH” if a new whale was found.

  “BUT THEY’RE VISUALLY TEH SAEM!!!1!!111 LOL”

• Erik
  April 30th, 2008 at 11:41 am

  A fish and a whale are not visually the same, come on. The picture shown looks nothing like what people think of when they think of lizards. If you go and find a lizard and cut off its legs, it will not look like the picture shown. The picture shown looks like a snake.

  If you want to say that biologically this should be classified as a lizard, that’s totally believable. If you want to say that it doesn’t look exactly like a snake, you’re kidding yourself.

• fsmarch
  April 30th, 2008 at 12:57 pm

  What came first, the chicken or the snake?

• BoT
  April 30th, 2008 at 1:22 pm

  It looks exactly like a snake in the same way that a guy who’s spray-painted the bald spot on his head looks exactly like he has hair.

  To those who think it’s the same as a snake: you’ll never see one up close, so you can afford your ignorance. Be my guest. It’s not a position that can be defended, though, beyond the “I have no idea what I’m talking about, I don’t care who knows it, and I think it’s stupid you know more about it than I do” defense.

  But again, be my guest.

• hooper
  April 30th, 2008 at 1:36 pm

  Sam:

  You are funny!

• Ben Eshbach
  May 1st, 2008 at 3:23 am

  Tempscire, Ashes and Meghan:

  Meghan. Where were you that you got to hold one of these critters?

  Ashes: I did the same thing as you did. Legless lizard?? What the heck?? Yay for quick wiki searches!

  Tempscire. I apologize for mistaking you for a pretend-know-it-all. You are not pretend.

• ted
  May 1st, 2008 at 9:04 am

  Hi, ashes.

  I beg to differ with your interpretation about it “proving evolution”. If this were a descendant of the Eden “snake”, it would show stubs where the legs should be. That way, it would always be reminded of its ancestor’s original sin. You indicate “I’m sure if we traced the fossil record” without any knowledge if such a fossil record exists. You are making a non-scientific statement based entirely on presumption.
  If you really wish to refute my tongue-in-cheek statement, please provide factual data and not presumptions.

• fsmarch
  May 1st, 2008 at 12:03 pm

  It always amazes me how bent out of shape people get!

• meghan
  May 1st, 2008 at 12:08 pm

  @ Ben:

  Wales, Great Britain. Wild, in the tall grass near the B&B I was at. It was a slow worm, not one of these, so I’m not sure how many of the traits carry over. The only thing I know is the same is the eyelids. But as a slow worm is a legless lizard, and this is a legless lizard, and it’s a fairly specific taxonomic group, I’d venture there’s a lot of similarities between the two.

• meghan
  May 1st, 2008 at 12:10 pm

  And yes, it was stupid to pick up a wild snake-like animal, but GB is not exactly Australia in terms of poisonous critters.

• Jesus Nut
  May 1st, 2008 at 10:17 pm

  LOL @ ted’s comment

  You indicate “I’m sure if we traced the fossil record” without any knowledge if such a fossil record exists. You are making a non-scientific statement based entirely on presumption.

  A hell of a lot more reasonable than this!:

  “If this were a descendant of the Eden “snake”, it would show stubs where the legs should be. That way, it would always be reminded of its ancestor’s original sin.”

  lmao how old are you…why do you still believe in fairy tales? Talk about presumption

• leongsoon
  May 1st, 2008 at 11:03 pm

  Erm, so there are leg-less lizards and four-legged snakes? Er, I’m confused, I think I’ll just go back to reading more..

• ted
  May 2nd, 2008 at 1:16 am

  Sigh… did NOBODY understand my attempt at humour?

  I guess I have to be a little less subtle. I wasn’t seriously suggesting that this was proof of Intelligent Design. However, proponents of ID would jump at this “proof” in much the same way that dude jumped at the banana being nature’s perfect fruit. And they would rightly respond to the “I’m sure if you looked at the fossil record” in much the same way. You can’t base all of your scientific proof on a preconceived notion - that would make the “Garden of Eden snake” theory just as plausible as the “I’m sure if…” theory.

  I better just stick with fart jokes.

• astrodex
  May 3rd, 2008 at 10:11 am

  I have always hated lizards but have no problem with snakes. I respect snakes and don’t wish to be bitten but just the existence of lizards grosses me out.

  I’m not sure what to do with this thing. The picture tells me to treat it like a snake but people say it moves like a lizard.

  I think I might also be grossed out by things that look indeterminate.

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