Legless lizards and snakes seem the same, but this is only at first glance. It turns out that there are a number of differences between these reptiles. In what ways do they differ? What species of legless lizards are the most common? Read about it in the article.
a brief description of
Legless lizards, which will be discussed in the article, look like snakes. They are missing limbs. Their eyelids are mobile. These reptiles lead an underground lifestyle: they spend most of their time in the ground. With the help of a head similar to a shovel, as well as due to the specific movements of the body, they make numerous passages in loose soil. Legless lizards feed on insects and invertebrates.
Regeneration in the animal world
The regeneration of body parts is much more common among different groups of invertebrates than vertebrates. This process can be bi-directional, in which both parts of the animal regenerate the parts that are missing to generate two animals, or unidirectional, in which the animal loses a limb but only regenerates it without forming two animals. Among vertebrates, fish and amphibians are those with a higher regenerative capacity, although many lizards and some mammals can regenerate their tails.
These reptiles are ovoviviparous. At one time, the female can bring several cubs, most often - no more than four. Lizards reach sexual maturity at three years.
Differences from snakes
Having met a legless lizard, people most often mistake it for a poisonous snake and try to kill the animal. Of course, reptiles have similarities: both legless lizards and snakes move by wriggling their bodies. However, if you look closely, you can find several pronounced differences between the two varieties of reptiles. Let's consider the difference using the example of two lizards: the spindle and the yellowbell.
The special device of the jaws allows snakes to swallow prey thicker than themselves. This is achieved by the fact that the square bone connecting the lower jaw to the skull is movable, and therefore the lower jaw can swing wide open and move back and forth. There is an tensile ligament in front of the jaw
Regeneration can take place in two different ways. In this mode, the missing body part is recreated mainly by remodeling pre-existing cells. So if the hydra is cut in half, we end up with two smaller versions of the original hydra. In this case, the lost part is regenerated by cell proliferation, i.e. created "again". This in most cases occurs through the formation of a specialized structure called the blastema, a mass of undifferentiated stem cells that appears in the phenomena of cellular regeneration.
- Regeneration without active cell proliferation or "morpholaxis".
- Regeneration with cell proliferation or "epimorphosis".
First, they have movable eyelids, while in snakes they have grown together, thereby forming a transparent protective layer over the eyes. Lizards have an ear opening, which is located behind the organs of vision. Snakes don't have it.
Secondly, the head and body are fastened differently in reptiles. If the spindle and yellowbell do not have any narrowing in the neck, then in snakes they are pronounced.
However, the origin of blastema stem cells varies by group. While the planes have pluripotent stem cells scattered throughout the body, vertebrates present specific cells in each tissue type that only generate cells from tissues where a blastema is found.
Rectilinear movement: a wave of muscle contractions passes through the body, and the abdominal scales cling to bumps, pushing the body forward. The posterior edge of the ventral scales can either descend, forming a ledge, or snuggle up
When you are a small animal being chased by a cat or other predator, it is probably more profitable to lose your precious tail in order to lose your life. Some terrestrial vertebrates have evolved after this philosophy and can voluntarily separate from their tail by a process called caudal autotomy. This allows them to flee from their predators, who amuse themselves with a lost tail that keeps moving.
What lizards are common in Russia?
Legless lizards live in many parts of the world. In Russia, there are several species of these animals. In the European part of our country, as well as in the Caucasus, the spindle is common. In the south of the state, you can stumble upon a yellow-bellied.
spindle
has a beautiful appearance. Its scales are very smooth and shiny. It is painted brown, brown or dark gray with a bronze sheen. Males have small blue spots on their backs. In captivity, reptiles molt after about a month.
Autotomy or autoamputation is defined as a behavior in which an animal separates from one or more body parts. Among reptiles, we find caudal autotomy in lacterids, geckos, skinks or snakhs, and tuatars. 
In reptiles, tail fracture occurs in certain areas of the tail vertebrae that are already weakened. Autotomy can occur in two different ways: intravertebral autotomy, in which the vertebrae in the center of the tail have transverse fracture planes ready to rupture with sufficient pressure, and intervertebral self-examination, in which the tail breaks between vertebrae under muscular constriction.
The legless lizard (spindle) feeds on mollusks, earthworms and insect larvae. It holds prey with the help of sharp teeth bent back. Thanks to this, slippery worms and slugs remain in the reptile's mouth. The lizard absorbs food in the following way: it swallows slowly, moving its head in different directions. If the worm grabbed onto something and does not leave the earthen hole, then the spindle straightens the body and begins to rotate in one direction. In this way, she tears off part of the prey. Eating snails, the reptile slowly pulls the mollusk out of the shelter, before that resting its head on the mouth of the shell.
Caudal autotomy allows the animal to escape, but this will be expensive. Many reptiles use the tail as a reservoir of fat, and the loss of this energy store is often detrimental to the animal. For this reason, many lizards, once the threat has passed, are known to seek out their lost tail and eat it to at least restore the energy they have stored up in the form of fat. In addition, the restoration of a new tail is an expensive energy process.
brittle spindle
The spindle family includes a huge number of species. There are more than a hundred of them in total. general characteristics spindles has already been introduced in this article. Now we will talk about one of the brightest representatives of the family - the brittle spindle. By the way, a legless serpentine lizard and a spindle are not the same thing. There is a big difference between them: for example, spindles have auditory openings and temporal arches.
Tail regeneration in reptiles differs from regeneration in amphibians and fish in that no blastema is formed, in which case a tube of cartilage is formed instead of actual regeneration of the tail vertebrae. The new tail is not as mobile and tends to be shorter than the original, and usually recovers completely after a few weeks. Most lizards can regenerate their tail multiple times, but some can only do so once. Sometimes the original tail does not break completely, but regeneration mechanisms are activated that can allow us to find lizards and geckos with more than one tail.
The length of these reptiles reaches 45 centimeters. Two-thirds of their body is a flexible mobile tail. At the same time, the border between the body and the tail is almost invisible to the naked eye. The scales of the animal are reinforced with bone plates. Usually spindles have gray or brown scales with a copper sheen. However, there are also albino individuals, as well as melanists, whose color is completely black. Cubs were once erroneously taken out into a separate species, because in early age their coloring divides the body into two halves: chocolate and golden. You can meet the brittle spindle in the forests. Sometimes she crawls into fields and gardens. In addition, this reptile can swim, so occasionally it appears near water bodies.
Urodelos, kings of regeneration
With the advent of good weather, it is more likely that we will go to the countryside to enjoy nature, and this increases the chances of encountering snakes and other reptiles sunbathing on a rock or grazing among the grass. Snakes are the best known group of scaly legless, although many other species of lizards and lizards have also lost limbs throughout their evolution.
Yellowbelly
The legless yellow-bellied lizard also has another name - capercaillie. This reptile is large, its length is one and a half meters. Yellowbelly is not quite a legless lizard. The remains of the limbs are represented by two claws located along the edges of the cloaca. They are most pronounced in adult males. Reptiles belong to the genus Armored spindles.
In fact, there are currently at least nine lines that have undergone a process of loss of leg function. In most groups, this is due to adaptation to underground life or life between grass and vegetation. 
While technically snakes are also lizards that have lost their legs, unlike other groups, some snakes can pose a danger to humans. That's why it's important to know how to tell the snake apart from the rest of the legless lizards. There are a number of characteristics that can help us identify a snake or venomous lizard.
The appearance of lizards is as follows: they have a long body, protected by fused scales. They perform the function of a shell. Skin folds run along the sides of the body. There are two in total. They make life easier for lizards, facilitate their breathing and provide elasticity to the shell while eating large pieces of food. The color of the body can be brown and yellowish, often red blotches appear on it. By the color of the shell, it is easy to determine the age of the lizard: individuals that are not yet a year old have a striped color, represented by dark stripes against a brown-yellow hue.
Poisonous snakes, attacking prey, hit it with retractable teeth, through the channel of which the poison from the poisonous gland enters the victim.
Ufidians do not outer ear, whereas in most lizards, the auditory canal can be observed. Snakes have specialized ventral scales for locomotion, while many adodal lizards must navigate uneven terrain. Many adodal lizards can detach from their tails as a method of defense, but snakes cannot. 
Snakes do not have mobile eyelids, while the rest are lizards. . In one we have already explained different types snakes that we can find in the Iberian Peninsula.
Distribution of yellowbells
This variety of legless lizards is common on the southern coast of Crimea, in Central Asia, Kazakhstan, the Caucasus, Syria, Israel, Iran and Iraq. Most often, stumbling upon this animal, people confuse it with a medium-sized snake. Yellowbelly tries to avoid conflict and hides in the grass first. However, some individuals are still injured or even killed.
Luchion is a small lizard without legs, reaching 40 centimeters in length. It presents with smooth and shiny scales and a small head with a poorly defined neck. Unlike snakes, it has movable eyelids, a loose tongue, and a small tympanic opening.
Juveniles are usually golden brown, silvery, or yellowish in color with black flanks and belly. Females have a coloration similar to the juveniles, being ocher with a dark brown or black belly and a black dorsal stripe, although their coloration can vary greatly.
Yellowbells live in various areas. They feel comfortable on the forest edges and rocky slopes, on the banks of rivers and in the steppes. These lizards are not at all afraid of people, so they can be found in vineyards and orchards. They feed on terrestrial animals, most often insects, as well as plants. They wait out the winter under stones, tree roots, in shelters like minks of rodents. As soon as the air temperature warms up to +16 degrees Celsius in spring, the yellow-bellies again show activity. They are typical diurnal lizards. The peak of their activity is in the morning and early evening. On very hot days, they may return to their hiding places and hibernate in the summer.
Males are the most uniform, with back and sides brown, greyish or brown, and some with brown spots on the sides that may turn blue. 
It is a reptile that is widespread throughout Europe, it can be found in the Iberian Peninsula, in England and Scotland to Iran and Western Siberia through Greece and Turkey.
In the Iberian Peninsula, it is mostly found in the northern half, covering most of Galicia, Asturias, Cantabria, the Basque Country, Castile León and northern Aragon and Catalonia. We can find them in a wide variety of open habitats such as grasslands, thickets and open forests. 
Unlike most reptiles that seek the sun to keep warm, the spot has a particular preference for damp and shady areas with low and abundant vegetation. It is usually sheltered under rocks, chests, plastics, or small mammal burrows.
California lizard
The California legless lizard is not very large. Her worm-like body reaches a length of only 25 centimeters, and this is the maximum. Top part the body is painted in a grayish-olive or brownish hue. In some subspecies, the color is dark brown or even black. Down side, as a rule, is yellow, and the head is dark. In young individuals, three longitudinal lines on the body are clearly visible.
On the Iberian Peninsula, this place is active from late February to November, when hibernation begins, during which up to 100 people are grouped. Mating lasts from mid-March to July, during which fights between males can occur. The gestational period lasts about 3 months, is ovoid and gives birth to 2 to 22 offspring.
Many species of reptiles, birds, and mammals feed on this species. Like many other lizards, the carving can be separated from the tail as a defensive method, which keeps moving while the rest of the animal runs. The tail begins to recover after a few weeks.
This reptile is common on the California coast. For this, the lizard got its name. You can also meet her in San Francisco. She lays passages in the ground at a depth of 10-15 centimeters. Settles most often in areas with sparse vegetation and sandy soil. However, this does not mean that it cannot be found in the rocks. Tree trunks lying on the ground, voids under stones - the lizard uses all these places as shelters.
Food for the California lizard is soil insects, their larvae, spiders and various arthropods. She mines them underground. The reptile also hunts on the surface of the soil, detecting the location of the prey by smell and quickly grabbing it with the help of its head sticking out of the sand.
>>Swift Lizard
Class reptiles
The head of the lizard is pointed in front, it is connected to the body with the help of a short thick neck. At the end of the snout is a pair of nostrils. The sense of smell in a lizard is better developed than in amphibians. The eyes are protected by eyelids. The lizard has a third eyelid - a translucent nictitating membrane, with the help of which the surface of the eye is constantly moistened. Behind the eyes is a rounded eardrum. The hearing of the lizard is very sensitive: the slightest noise made by a crawling insect already attracts its attention.
From time to time, the lizard protrudes from its mouth a long, thin, forked tongue at the end - the organ of touch.
In the limbs of the lizard, the same sections are distinguished as in the limbs of the frog. There are five toes on each foot, there are no membranes between them.
The entire body of the lizard is covered with scaly dry skin. The scales on the muzzle and on the belly look like rather large shields. At the tips of the fingers, the horny cover forms claws. Claws lizard clings when climbing. The horny cover of the body prevents the growth of the animal, in connection with this, the lizard molts 4-5 times a summer: its keratinized skin exfoliates and comes off in pieces.
The internal structure of the lizard is in many ways similar to internal structure of amphibians, although there are significant differences in some organ systems. The lizard has 8 cervical vertebrae - this ensures the mobility of the head. Attached to the thoracic vertebrae on each side is a rib. The other end of each rib, with the help of cartilage, grows together with an unpaired sternum. As a result, a rib cage protecting the lungs and heart of the animal.
The lizard does not have cutaneous respiration. She breathes exceptionally light. They have a more complex cellular structure than that of a frog, due to which the surface of gas exchange in the lungs increases.
The heart is three-chambered and consists of two atria and a ventricle. Unlike amphibians, the ventricle of the lizard is equipped with an incomplete internal septum, which divides it into the right (venous) part and the left (arterial).
Despite the great complexity of the structure of the lungs and heart of the lizard (compared to amphibians), the metabolism in its body is still quite slow and depends on temperature. environment. Therefore, in warm weather, lizards are active, and when it gets cold, they, like all other reptiles, become lethargic.
Digestive, excretory and nervous system lizards are similar in structure to the corresponding systems of amphibians. In the brain, the cerebellum, which is in charge of balance and coordination of movements, is more developed than in amphibians, which is associated with greater mobility of the lizard and a significant variety of its movements.
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