The eastern glass lizard, Ophisaurus ventralis, is a legless reptile of the family Anguidae and the longest and heaviest of the glass lizards in genus Ophisaurus, endemic to the southeastern United States from southeastern Virginia through south Florida west to Louisiana, with isolated records in Oklahoma and Missouri. Adults reach 46 to 108 centimeters in total length, with a lateral groove of more than 99 scales, unmarked undersides, older individuals showing longitudinal dark dorsal lines, and some developing a greenish back with yellow underside unique among North American Ophisaurus. Unlike true snakes, it has movable eyelids, an external ear opening and the lateral groove, and it favors flatwoods near wetlands with sandy soils and salt-tolerant tidal areas, foraging by day as an opportunistic omnivore of insects, small mammals, eggs and vegetation, and sheds its tail as a predator defense.
Facts
Classification
Living or Extinct Scientific Name Conservation Status Connections
Child Taxon Of
Anguidae, Taxa Source Wikidata: Eastern Glass Lizard
In the Other Atlases
Sources
1. Wikidata: Eastern Glass Lizard
Wikidata- Wikidata Q3015380, class allow-list match (w-wdresolver-0926)
Statements section, conservation status (P141)
IUCN Red List conservation status (Wikidata property P141): least concern.
- Wikidata Q3015380 (P225 taxon name)
- Child Taxon Of: Anguidae, Wikidata parent-taxon (P171) chain
View the Source 2. GBIF Species API
3. Eastern Glass Lizard (Wikipedia)
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