LIZARD
			Phylum: Class: Order: Chordata Reptilia Squamata

Lizards are reptiles related to snakes, yet are vastly different creatures. Lizards have an outer ear opening, and moveable eyelids. However, unlike snakes, they cannot unhinge their jaws to swallow prey much wider than the size of their heads.

The 18 lizard families include approximately 3,000 species - more than any other kind of reptile. At least one species ranges north inside the Arctic Circle, although most lizards live in warmer regions of the world, controlling their body heat by basking in the sun, then burrowing or lying in the shade.

Some lizards have special survival tricks they use, like flattening their bodies to warm up quickly, or standing on alternate feet to stop their toes from burning on hot desert sand. Usually lizards have four well-developed limbs. But some have limbs modified especially to help them run, climb, or burrow. The frilled lizard sprints on its long hind legs, whereas the gecko family have toes that help them run up walls. The glass lizard group have smooth, limbless bodies that help them burrow.

Lizards generally eat live insects, spiders, and other small creatures. Members of the monitor lizard family hunt larger prey. Iguana lizards are herbivores that eat fruit, and sometimes seaweed. Because lizards have many enemies, they rely on speed, camouflage, and keen hiding abilities to protect them.

Most lizards lay eggs, but some bear fully-formed young. In several different species, mothers nourish unborn young by means of a placenta.