How many types of lizards are there?
How many types of lizards there are depends on the sense in which the term lizard is used. In a broad sense, monitor lizards or crocodiles can also be counted among the lizards. Then the variety of animals is enormous.
When talking about lizards, you might imagine a sand lizard and suspect that there are numerous other species of this shape. Assuming that crocodiles are also known as armored lizards and chameleons are also lizards, the question arises: How many of them live on earth? The answer is not that simple.
No clear structure for many species
- The term lizard is not clearly defined. There are squamata, which are divided into the two large groups of lizards and snakes. However, this is not entirely correct if you look at the degrees of relationship between the animals. A monitor lizard, which you probably count as a lizard, is more closely related to snakes than to some lizard families. So he would have to be classified with the snakes. Therefore, depending on the source, you will also find different systematic breakdowns if you want to deal more closely with the many species of lizards.
- However, if you proceed from this rough breakdown into lizards and snakes, there are about 5800 lizards and 3500 snakes on earth. In comparison, there are 5500 mammals on our planet. The group of lizards is therefore extremely diverse. How many there really are, however, also depends on how you use the term lizard.
- The lizards (Lacertilia) are further subdivided by zoologists into iguana, gecko, skink or crawling. In the group of the skinky there is the family of the real lizards (Lacertidae). They used to be called collar lizards. This group includes around 300 different species.
- If the term lizards is used in common parlance, it usually means all small four-legged reptiles with a head, slim body and long tail. A gecko can therefore be viewed as a lizard, an iguana, anoli, chameleon or monitor lizard and of course our sand lizard, forest lizard and many others. In this sense, the question of how many lizards there are cannot simply be answered with a specific number.
Lizard species - interesting facts about reptiles
Lizards are at home in all parts of the world except the polar regions. There is …
There are lizards and others
- As mentioned earlier, there is the family of real lizards. The species represented in this group live in Europe, Africa or Asia, but not in Australia and the American continent. Of the 300 species, six are in Germany native.
- The lizards living in Germany are the sand lizard, forest lizard, wall lizard, Croatian mountain lizard, Emerald lizard (Eastern and Western) and the sneak (not a real lizard) Slow worm. There are exceptions to the rule that all lizards have four legs.
- Of course, species of lizards also live in Australia and America. These are similar to the real lizards, but are often provided with decorative skin flaps, sacs, scale combs and other special features. The ability to change color like a chameleon is also lacking in all real lizards. So they are ordinary shapes, just like you would probably imagine a lizard to be.
- Many of these nonetheless interesting species do not exist in Germany. Unfortunately, due to our intensive agriculture, tidy villages and gardens and dense settlements, their habitats are becoming more and more restricted. Therefore, all native lizards are under protection. If you can create a pile of stones in the garden, you might be lucky enough to spot a sand lizard. Especially in spring, the animals like to sunbathe on the warm stones.
How helpful do you find this article?
