Southern alligator lizard
The Southern alligator lizard is a unique reptile native to the Pacific coast of North America, known for its alligator-like appearance and movement. These slim, smooth, and scaly lizards typically grow to about one foot in length, excluding their long tails. Their coloration varies, featuring shades of green, brown, gray, silver, or black, and they possess short legs that are not particularly strong, with splayed toes adapted for their environment. Southern alligator lizards inhabit diverse ecosystems, including dry regions, wooded valleys, and humid areas.
Their diet is carnivorous, consisting of small lizards, mice, eggs, young birds, and various insects, allowing them to play an important role in their ecosystems. Notably, these lizards have several sensory adaptations, including a unique third eye on their heads that helps them detect changes in light and seasonal shifts. Reproduction occurs between April and May when females lay eggs and may guard them until hatching. The young lizards are independent from birth and can reproduce by 18 months of age. Southern alligator lizards have a lifespan of 10 to 15 years and are currently not considered a threatened species, reflecting a stable population in their natural habitats.
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Southern alligator lizard
Southern alligator lizards are given their names because they look and move like alligators. They are smooth, scaly, slow-moving, anguid lizards. They can be found on the Pacific coast of North America.
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Reptilia
Order: Squamata
Family: Anguidae
Genus: Elgaria
Species: Multicarinata
Southern alligator lizards are slim, smooth, scaly lizards. They have green, brown, gray, silver, or black scales. Southern alligator lizards have short, weak legs with a few splayed, or separated, toes. Like other anguids, their legs are not very strong or well-developed. Their heads are flat and come to a point in the front much like alligators. Southern alligator lizards grow to be about one foot (30 centimeters) long, not including their long, slender tails.
Southern alligator lizards live in dry areas, wooded valleys, and humid, or hot and wet, areas along the western coast of North America. They examine their environments by the use of their many sensory organs. They receive tiny chemical signals on their tongues which tell them what prey and predators are in the area. Southern alligator lizards also have third eyes. These are flat, round sensory organs located on each of their heads. These organs inform southern alligator lizards of the time of day and season of year.
These carnivorous lizards live on a diet of small lizards, mice, eggs, young birds, tadpoles, earthworms, spiders, scorpions, sow bugs, grasshoppers, moths, and wasps. Carnivores are animals that eat only meat. While southern alligator lizards are hunting for their prey, they also keep watch for predators such as snakes and birds of prey.
Between April and May, female southern alligator lizards lay clutches, or batches, of between five and 20 eggs. They may guard their eggs until they hatch, but, after, they have no further contact with their young, or hatchlings. The baby southern alligator lizards crack free from their shells and survive independently. They can mate when they are 18 months of age.
Southern alligator lizards have an average life span of between 10 and 15 years. They are not a threatened species.
Bibliography
“Southern Alligator Lizard - Channel Islands National Park." National Park Service, 7 Sept. 2021, www.nps.gov/chis/learn/nature/southern-alligator-lizard.htm. Accessed 4 May 2024.
“Southern Alligator Lizard - Facts, Diet, Habitat, & Pictures on Animalia.bio.” Animalia, 2024, animalia.bio/southern-alligator-lizard. Accessed 4 May 2024.