Looking at these photographs, one might first think they were looking at a particularly unique, badass, and shiny snake. This is not, however, a snake. This is an Eastern glass lizard, Ophisaurus ventralis — one of several species of “legless lizards” found in North America.
Biologically, the Eastern glass lizard is a lizard through and through; they simply lack the legs one usually expects to find on a lizard. Now, snakes and lizards collectively comprise Order Squamata (the “scaled reptiles”), but historically (in my life) they’ve been divided at the suborder level: snakes in suborder Serpentes and lizards in suborder Lacertilia. With emerging systems of phylogenetic classification and furthered genetic understanding, this simple binary may end up being complicated quite a bit, but for now I still think of snakes as Serpentes and lizards as Lacertilia. It’s important to remember that Pluto’s not a planet anymore and I don’t take childhood learning for granite granted anymore.
As for this particular species, it’s a member of Family Anguidae — a family consisting of North American glass lizards, alligator lizards, and the slow worm lizards. In south Georgia and peninsular Florida, we have a few species of glass lizards, but this species, Ophisaurus ventralis, is by far the most common in most of the areas I’ve sojourned.
This species ranges throughout most of the American southeast, from Louisiana east to Florida and then north to Virginia. In my experience, they average around 2.5-3 feet in length, or so, and spend much of their time burrowed under loose soil and surface debris. I usually see them during the morning hours in moderately sandy, if not xeric, environments. Pine forests seem to serve them well, as do the sandy islands of the Floridian east coast (places such as Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge).
As is typical with lizards, Eastern glass lizards have flexible eyelids and external ear canals — neither of which snakes possess. When handled, you’ll notice how much more-firm and less-flexible they are to the touch. Whereas a snake’s body is extremely flexible and fluid, the Eastern glass lizard’s is more robust and solid to the touch. The species also has the tendency to “break off” its tail as a defense mechanism — to confuse would-be predators. This is likely where their common name comes from, as they “break like glass.”
I spotted this individual delicately scuttling across a dirt trail in Grand Bay Wildlife Management Area in south Georgia, a dozen miles or so east/northeast of Valdosta. It was about eleven a.m. on 01 October 2012. Truth be told, I’d expected to find one of these lizards at some point in the pine forests of Grand Bay. The habitat absolutely reeks Eastern glass lizard to me — sandy top soil, healthy pine forest, and lots and lots of saw palmetto, Serenoa repens. From my experiences in Florida, the area is damn near perfect for the species.
As for the lizard’s cooperation and tolerance, it was high! Though the lizard briefly thrashed about when I picked it up, understandably, the glassy one didn’t shed its tail (yay!) and was quick to realize I wasn’t actually eating it, but instead was simply holding a large, black “Nikon” box in front of it, pressing buttons (as primates often do). After a few minutes, I put the lizard back on the trail and it high-tailed it into the nearby brush, seeking safety and seclusion.
~ janson
Filed under: Georgia, Grand Bay and Banks Lake, Lizards Tagged: Ophisaurus ventralis
