Flying Dragon Lizard

The flying dragon lizard is a small tree-dwelling lizard native to the rainforests of Southeast Asia, capable of gliding between trees using wing-like flaps of skin stretched over elongated ribs along each side of its body. When folded, these membranes lie flat against the lizard's sides, but when extended they let the animal glide considerable distances from tree to tree without ever touching the ground. This gliding ability helps it move efficiently through the forest canopy while avoiding ground-based predators and conserving the energy that climbing down and back up each trunk would cost.