
The Common scaly-foot is yet another snake-like lizard. Common scaly-foot lizard common scaly-foot lizard | image by John Tann via Flickr | CC BY 2.0 This lizard is actually named after the wife of an American herpetologist who collected the first specimen.Ĩ. These skinks are often mistaken for a type of small, worm-like looking snakes called blind snakes. Miriam’s skink is a type of legless skink that is endemic to a Northeastern province of Thailand. Miriam’s skink Miriam’s skink | (original image uploaded to ) by ian_dugdale via Wikimedia Commons | CC BY-SA 4.0 These odd animals are native to Southern Africa.ħ. However, you need to look closely to spot their limbs as they are disproportionately small to the rest of their body, and hardly look functional. The coppery grass lizard, aka transvaal grass lizard, is different from the others on this list because of the fact that it actually has tiny legs. Transvaal grass lizard coppery or transvaal grass lizard | image by Alandmanson via Wikimedia Commons | CC BY-SA 4.0 They get their name from the two to three rings on their head and neck.Ħ. They are native to a small part of Australia between New South Wales and Queensland, where they inhabit both forested and suburban areas. The Collared delma is a type of legless lizard that is actually a type of gecko. They are fairly common, but can be hard to find due to their tendency to spend their time hidden under things or under ground. These lizards are widely distributed throughout Europe. Slow worms are not related to worms at all, but are in fact another lizard that resembles a snake. The California legless lizard sports a yellow belly with a glossy, silver back. They can even be found in sand dunes along the coast. They prefer looser substrates, like sand or leaf litter. California legless lizard California legless lizard | source: Santa Monica Mountains National Recreation Area via FlickrĪs the name would suggest, this species of legless lizard is native to California where it can be found in coastal California.

They are known for their extremely fragile, “glass-like” tail that they can detach or break off without it ever being touched.ģ. They overlap some of their range with the Eastern glass lizard and can be found in the Southeast of the United States as well as the Midwest. This species was actually once thought to be a subspecies of the Eastern glass lizard. Slender glass lizard western slender glass lizard | image by Peter Paplanus via Flickr | CC BY 2.0 They tend to feed on mostly invertebrates, but have also been known to eat small mice.Ģ. These lizards are anywhere between 18 and 42 inches long, however most of this length is from their long tails. They range from the very southeastern tip of Virginia, all the way south down to Florida. Eastern glass lizards are a type of legless lizard that can be found in the Southeastern United States. Glass lizards quickly come to mind when considering lizards that look like snakes. Eastern glass lizard eastern glass lizard | image by Bert Cash via Flickr | CC BY 2.0 Instead, snakes have a clear scale that covers their eye to protect it. And finally, lizards have movable eyelids while snakes do not. Snakes do not have external ears, and in fact do not have the same ability to hear that lizards do. The other two traits are a little bit harder to pick out and require a closer look but are a surefire way to determine a lizard from a snake.Īs a general rule, lizards have external ears that look like small holes in their head behind their eyes.

Obviously, the first one being that snakes have no legs while most lizards do. However, there are some hard defining characteristics that make snakes and lizards different from each other. For example, many lizards eat invertebrates while the majority of snakes do not. Lizards often share different natural histories or ecology from snakes and may eat different prey types, for one. There are many different species of lizards and snakes, all of which are unique from each other. What’s the difference between snakes and lizards? In this article, we will list several types of lizards that may be mistaken for snakes! At first glance, you may mistake some lizards for snakes. It is no surprise that there are still several species of lizards that look like snakes.Īcross the board, all snakes have no legs- however there are also some species of lizards that share this characteristic. In fact, snakes are thought to have evolved from lizards over 140 million years ago. They are related to animals like turtles and tortoises, but are even more so closely related to snakes. Lizards fall into a group of animals called reptiles.
