A caiman lizard is an imposing reptile.  It has sharp claws, strong jaws, and can grow to be five feet long.   Fortunately for us, caiman lizards feed almost exclusively on snails and other aquatic invertebrates, which are plentiful in the Amazon River basin where it lives.

Because of its large size and bright coloration, caiman lizards have become very popular in the pet trade.  As a result of this, though, scientists don’t know much about how these lizards function in their natural habitat, since most of our knowledge of this species comes from observing captive lizards.  What we do know is that caiman lizards like to climb, are excellent swimmers, and are considered to be quite intelligent.

In the wild, caiman lizards have been seen taking different approaches to grabbing a snail depending on how it is situated.  In captivity, these lizards make excellent problem solvers, figuring out how to open containers that had food in them.  Caiman lizards can even recognize their owners, and react accordingly.  Not bad for something that spends most of its life crunching snails.

Names can be deceiving.  The Mexican mole lizard does live in Mexico, and it does burrow underground like its namesake, but it isn’t a lizard.  Nor is it a worm, despite its appearance.  The Mexican mole lizard is a type of reptile called amphisbaenians. These are reptiles that have evolved to dig through the ground like worms, and all of them except for the genus Bipes have lost their legs.

The Mexican mole lizard burrows using the massive claws on its forelegs to shovel dirt out of the way. It is rarely seen above the surface, only coming out at night or after a heavy rain (just like worms).  Since it lives underground most of the time, this reptile has very small, beady eyes that only really detect changes in light. This doesn’t matter to the Mexican mole lizard, though, because it has a very strong sense of touch, which allows it to detect the slightest movement above or below ground.

Mexican mole lizards will eat just about anything.  Insect larvae, earthworms, ants, termites, and even small lizards have fallen prey to these voracious reptiles.  If they sense something above ground that they can eat, the Mexican mole lizard sneaks up on the unfortunate creature from below, then grabs it and drags it down to tear apart with their interlocking teeth.  Luckily for us humans, amphisbaenians are pretty small. A large Mexican mole lizard is only 9 inches long, about the size of a stretched out earthworm.

When asked to think of a lizard, most people imagine something that is scaly, cold blooded, and lays eggs.  Zootoca vivipara is a little different from most lizards though.  It is one of only three species of lizards that live on the British Isles, but is also found throughout Eurasia, and its range extends past the Arctic Circle, farther north than any other reptile.  That in itself is an accomplishment, but this lizard is known for something else.  You see, this lizard is known as the viviparous lizard, because instead of laying eggs like most reptiles, this lizard gives birth to live young.

The reason for this unusual adaptation is the viviparous lizard’s (or common lizard, as some people call it) habitat.  It is simply not warm enough to lay eggs and let them incubate on their own.  Female lizards must carry their young inside for three months so that they can develop without freezing.  There are viviparous lizards that do practice the lay and leave method (where a lizard finds a safe place, lays her eggs, and then takes off), but all of them live farther south, where it is warmer.

Other than their method of reproduction, viviparous lizards aren’t that different from most other lizards. They’re pretty small, with a body length of only 5 inches, although their tails can be double that.  They eat small insects and bask in the sun when they get cold.  In the winter, the northern populations hibernate, while the ones in the south stay active year round, presumably to celebrate the joys of not having to carry around squirming young for a quarter of the year.

The flying dragon is not a real dragon.  It’s actually a small lizard found in the forests of Southeast Asia.  These lizards are a mottled brown, which helps them to blend in with their arboreal surroundings.  The only spot of color visible on them is the bright yellow dewlap, a flap of skin on the throat, which the flying dragons use to communicate.

This all changes once the flying dragons spread their wings.  Well, not actual wings.  All 42 species of lizards in the genus Draco have elongated ribs that they can stretch out and use to glide from tree to tree. Draco volans can glide almost 30 feet, which makes getting from one tree to the other a whole lot easier.

The females of this species are usually a little larger than the males, but they make up for that with the brilliant blue undersides of their wings, which they use to court the females. Once they have mated, the female flying dragon will glide to the ground, where she shoves her head into the ground to make a hole and lays a couple of eggs.

Meet the green basilisk lizard, also known as the plumed basilisk and the Jesus Christ lizard. Two of those names are self-explanatory. The males of this species are bright green and have three crests, one on their head, one on their back, and one on their tails.

‘Jesus Christ’ is supposedly what the researchers said when they first saw the green basilisk execute its most famous escape strategy.  That and the fact that the aforementioned escape strategy is running on water to evade predators led to this particular nickname.

Other than the fact that the green basilisk has the miraculous ability to temporarily defy gravity, these lizards are fairly ordinary.  They live in the rainforests of Central America, and eat both plants and animals.  This particular basilisk is one of the larger of the species, averaging in at about 2.5 feet (including the tail, which makes up more than two thirds of that length.  The females aren’t as colorful as the males and lack the back and tail crests, but are still striking.  The green basilisk is also an excellent swimmer, and has the ability to stay submerged beneath the water for half an hour.  

Weighing in at 220 pounds, the Yangtze giant softshell turtle has the honor of being the largest (and heaviest) freshwater turtle in the world.  The shell of this giant can grow up to 34 inches long and 28 inches wide. This turtle is omnivorous, eating fish, frogs, snails, crabs, water hyacinths, and leaves.  Despite its enormous size (or perhaps because of it), Rafetus swinhoei is critically endangered, with only four* living individuals known to herpetologists at the moment.

Two of these turtles (which are native to China and Vietnam) reside in the Suzhou Zoo in China.  This breeding pair has yet to produce any fertile eggs, but the scientists are positive that, with a little help, they will eventually.  The other two* (both males) live in lakes in Vietnam.

Even though the Yangtze giant softshell turtle is extremely rare, they are considered to be special.   In fact, the sole turtle that lives in Hoàn Kiếm Lake has a special mythology surrounding it.  A turtle god once gave a hero a magical sword, which he used to gain Vietnam’s independence from China.  The hero then went boating on Hoàn Kiếm Lake, only to have a large turtle snatch the sword right out of his hands and swim to the bottom of the lake. Hoàn Kiếm Lake (which literally translates as ‘the lake of the returned sword’) is said to be where this occurred, and that the Yangtze giant softshell turtle was the one that did the deed.  

*On January 20, 2016, Cu Rua, the turtle of Hoàn Kiếm Lake, died, leaving only three Yangtze giant softshell turtles in the world.

The rubber boa is a snake that lives on the western side of North America, with a range stretching all the way from California to British Columbia.  This makes them the northern most boa species in the world, which is good for this snake, since it doesn’t handle the heat of the lower latitudes very well.  This doesn’t mean that the rubber boa’s habitat is restricted though.  These snakes can be found living in grasslands, forests, and alpine environments; basically anywhere that has a place for the rubber boa to hide in.

Having cover is very important to the rubber boa.  They aren’t very big (the maximum length of this snake is only about 2.5 feet) and are not aggressive in any way (which makes it a popular pet, since the rubber boa never bites), so it can be a little difficult to defend themselves from anything that wants to eat them.  If threatened, all a rubber boa can do is to release a foul smelling musk or curl up into a ball with its blunted tail acting as a fake head for predators to strike at.  

When night falls, the rubber boa becomes active and starts hunting for prey.  If it comes across eggs of other reptiles or birds, it’ll eat them, but the preferred prey of this snake are the babies of the other animals that make use of the shelter; mice, voles, and shrews.  Speaking of babies, rubber boas are ovoviviparous (their young develop in eggs, but hatch inside the mother, making it seem like a live birth) and can produce up to 9 baby snakes each year, although most females only reproduce every four years.

What looks like a lizard, acts like a lizard, but isn’t a lizard?  The answer to that question is the northern tuatara, one of the oldest and most unusual reptiles on the planet.

The tuatara is one of the oldest reptiles on the planet in more ways than one.  Tuataras are ancient creatures; the only surviving members of the order Rhynchocephalia.  They have amphibian-like brains, fish-like spines, and the most primitive heart and lungs of any reptile.  They also have extremely long lifespans; it can take the tuatara 20 years to reach sexual maturity, five years to develop and lay an egg (the slowest reproduction of any reptile), and 35 years to get to their maximum length of two feet.  There is a captive tuatara that is over 100 years old and still able to reproduce, leading some scientists to think that these reptiles might have a lifespan of a whopping 200 years.

Tuataras live exclusively in New Zealand.  Until the introduction of invasive species such as rats and cats, the tuatara had no natural predators, but that doesn’t mean it can’t defend itself.  This reptile has armored spines all along its back and tail, and like a lizard, has the ability to break off said tail if it is grabbed.  Tuataras also have a nasty bite that they will direct at anything that gets too close, as well as the tendency to keep their mouth clamped shut on whatever it has sunk its teeth into.

Even though they evolved with no predators, the tuatara still prefers to come out at night.  With the exception of the young, who are active during the day to avoid the cannibalistic adults, tuataras are almost entirely nocturnal.  This is because these reptiles need cooler temperatures to survive.  Anything over 82° F can be fatal, so during the day, tuataras hide out in burrows that they have dug themselves or borrowed from nesting sea birds.  Once night falls, the tuatara goes on the hunt, searching for bugs, frogs, lizards, and eggs.  When dawn approaches, the tuatara detects the ultraviolet rays of the sun using its third eye, a sensory organ on the top of its head that can tell dark from light, and makes its way back to its shelter to rest until it is time to hunt again.

Reaching a maximum length of 4 inches, the Barbados threadsnake is the smallest snake ever. It’s so small that female snakes only develop one egg at a time, and the baby that hatches from it is already half the size of an adult, because if it were any smaller, it wouldn’t be able to find food for itself.

These tiny snakes live exclusively on the island of Barbados, hence the name.  Unlike other snakes, the mouth of the Barbados threadsnake barely opens, so it spends most of its time burrowing in the moist island soil in search of near microscopic invertebrates.  Because of this subterranean lifestyle, this snake (like most others in the threadsnake family) has very poor vision, if it can even see at all.

While the Barbados threadsnake wasn’t formally classified until 2008, specimens had been recorded as far back as 1889, but were all thought to have been a different species. Part of the reason no one ever caught on that this particular threadsnake was a completely new animal was that the only way to really tell them apart is by their teeth, jaws, and scales, which can be difficult to see due to their minute size.  

What if I told you that there is an animal that can be found in Europe, Asia, and the Americas, is carnivorous, has 15 sets of legs, and is probably IN YOUR HOUSE RIGHT NOW AND IT LOOKS LIKE THIS!!

Although it may look like some sort of alien monster, it’s actually the humble house centipede. They’re relatively harmless (most of these arthropods couldn’t hurt you if they tried due to their tiny teeth) and eat the bugs you should really be worrying about (aka cockroaches, termites, silverfish, and bedbugs).  House centipedes don’t carry disease, don’t destroy your property, and try to stay out of people’s way.  

The body of a house centipede is only about an inch long, but thanks to those ridiculously long legs and antennae, it can look much bigger.  It also spends a significant amount of time keeping those legs clean. Like a cat, it will groom itself, meticulously making sure that everything is in proper order.  So next time you see one of these centipedes crawling out of your drain, try not to scream or panic, and remember that this is one bug that you don’t want to squish.