the.com/glass lizard
A legless lizard pretending to be a snake, until its tail shatters off in panic.
means A legless lizard (not a snake) that can snap its long tail into pieces when grabbed, the fragments wriggling off as a decoy while the lizard escapes.
from The 'glass' comes from this tail-shattering trick itself — the tail breaks apart so easily and cleanly that early namers likened it to glass fracturing, not to any actual glass content. 'Lizard' traces back through Old French 'lesard' to Latin 'lacerta,' a word for lizard (and newt-like creatures) that's been in use since antiquity. The scientific habit of calling such reptiles 'glass snakes' in common speech is a folk mix-up worth naming: despite the look, genus Ophisaurus and kin are true lizards, keeping external ear openings and movable eyelids that snakes lack.
- not a snake
- has eyelids and ear holes, snakes have neither
- name origin
- tail snaps into multiple pieces like glass
- regrowth limit
- regrows a stubby, duller replacement tail, never identical
- diet
- prefers snails and insects, crushes shells with strong jaws