The lizard is an unsurpassed master of disguise, a brisk reptile, with its scaly appearance resembling a small copy of the animals of the ancient world.
Modern individuals, whose average life expectancy is 3-5 years, are mostly small - from 10 to 40 cm. The largest representative is the pearl lizard - a little less than a meter in length.
Description
A distinctive feature of modern lizards are movable eyelids, an elongated torso, medium-sized legs and a long tail. Desert residents are endowed with long fingers with lateral teeth, making it easy to move around the sand without falling into the depths.
Lizards are voiceless. An exception are some species that inhabit the Canary Islands and emit a squeak during danger.
The green lizard feeds on invertebrates: grasshoppers, butterflies, locusts, spiders, snails, slugs, worms. Lunch of large individuals can be snakes, small rodents or laying of birds. Lizards quietly creep up to the prey, trying not to frighten them away, and then abruptly rush at it and catch it in their mouth. Also, lizards like to enjoy some of the fruits of plants: cherries, cherries, viburnum, grapes.
Reproduction occurs several times per season, in large individuals - once a year. For the lady of the heart, males engage in fierce battles, accompanied by bloodshed. The female lays eggs (in small representatives from 2 to 4, in large ones - up to 18), which she hides in burrows or buries in the soil. The cubs are born after 3-6 weeks, and immediately begin to live independently.
Adaptability to environmental conditions
The lizard is inherent tenacity of fingers with claws on movable legs, providing high speed when moving and dexterity when climbing trees and shrubs to a height of several meters. Coloring optimally adapted to the environment is an effective camouflage in the event of imminent danger. This allows you to practically merge with the outside world. Most often, the lizard is green. There are also gray and brown individuals, endowed with bright spots (blue, red, azure, yellow) on the throat, abdomen and sides. The lizard in the desert is distinguished by a yellow body color imitating the texture of sand.
She has enough enemies. These are storks, snakes, crows, kingfishers, hoopoes, small falcons. Therefore, to protect the lizard - an unsurpassed master of disguise - uses various methods: it is a quick run with sharp unpredictable turns, freezing, burrowing in the sand.
Unique property - getting rid of the tail
The above methods of saving one’s own life with the approaching danger are complemented by such a unique property of a lizard as getting rid of its own tail, or rather, from its part.
In the event of a possible fall into the enemy’s malicious embrace, in the claws of the latter, at best, there will remain a twisting segment of the tail, which confuses him. A brisk animal has long dived into the nearest loophole, leaving the ill-wisher, as they say, with a nose. Some species of lizards can part with their tail only at a young age, completely losing this ability over time.
The tail of the lizard is the spine, which consists of several zones interconnected by cartilage, muscles and ligaments. Each site is able to burst painlessly, therefore, with the danger that has arisen, dropping the reptile's tail occurs spontaneously as a result of a strong muscle spasm.
By the way, it’s very difficult to tear off the tail of a dead lizard, and if successful, the gap is torn, with sticking muscle bundles - not like a living reptile.
The experiments performed show that if a headless lizard, deprived of the brain, is grabbed by the tip of the tail, then it will be thrown away with the same ease as in ordinary life. Autotomy is also observed in representatives of the flora, such as haying spiders, cancers, echinoderms.
At the site of the gap from the loss of the tail, a film is formed that prevents bleeding. Almost immediately, the cartilage rod is restored, which is overgrown with new scaly skin and muscles without restoration of the vertebrae. True, the new tail is not so mobile and in size an order of magnitude shorter than the old. Regrowth of the lost part occurs in lizards from a month to a year (depending on the size of the animal).
Effects
Without a tail, the so-called helm, the lizard - an unsurpassed master of disguise - loses its inherent agility, agility, speed and ability to reproduce. Water lizards lose their ability to swim, which forces them to change their lifestyle.
The tail is a kind of energy accumulator that stores fats and nutrients. Therefore, after his loss, the lizard - an unsurpassed master of disguise - may simply die. Often a reptile, able to escape, searches for its tail and eats it in order to restore lost strength.
It is rare to find a lizard with two tails in the forest. This can be explained by the fact that in one unfavorable moment she did find herself in the teeth of a predator, leaving that a small piece of her body as a keepsake. After some time, a new segment will grow in place of the lost part with the remaining almost whole old tail.