Legless lizards are reptiles that often cause alarm due to their striking physical similarity to snakes. These limbless creatures are found globally, belonging to different lizard families that independently evolved to lose their limbs. When encountering one, the immediate concern is often whether the animal poses a threat due to a potential bite. The straightforward answer is that legless lizards can bite if they feel threatened or are handled, but their bite is non-venomous and harmless to humans. Their natural defense mechanisms focus on evasion and escape, not aggression.
The Nature of Legless Lizard Bites
A bite from a legless lizard is exclusively a defensive reaction, occurring only when the animal is handled, constrained, or feeling intense stress. Unprovoked bites are extremely rare, and if a bite does occur, the resulting injury is typically minor and does not require medical attention.
Legless lizards possess small, cone-shaped teeth designed for capturing and crushing small invertebrate prey like insects, snails, and spiders. Unlike many snakes, they do not have specialized fangs or venom glands. Furthermore, their jaw structure is fused and rigid, meaning they cannot unhinge their jaws to engulf large objects.
The small teeth rarely puncture human skin, often feeling more like a minor pinch than a true injury. Any slight wound should be cleaned thoroughly to prevent bacterial infection, but the lizard itself carries no venomous threat.
Distinguishing Lizards from Snakes
The most effective way to address safety concerns is to correctly identify the animal, as several physical differences set legless lizards apart from snakes.
One of the clearest distinctions is the presence of eyelids. Legless lizards possess movable eyelids, allowing them to blink and close their eyes, a feature entirely absent in snakes, which have their eyes covered by a fixed, transparent scale.
Another reliable identifying feature is the external ear opening. Most legless lizards have small but visible ear holes on the sides of their heads, whereas snakes completely lack any external ear structure.
The structure of the body and scales also provides important clues. Legless lizards typically have a noticeably long tail, often comprising half or more of their total body length, and they can detach this tail as a defense mechanism, a process known as caudal autotomy. In contrast, snakes have a much shorter tail relative to their body length and cannot drop it. Furthermore, legless lizards often have uniform scales running around their entire body, while snakes possess broad, specialized belly scales designed for locomotion.
Common Examples of Legless Lizards
Legless lizards are found globally, with different species evolving limbless forms suited to burrowing lifestyles.
The European Slow Worm (Anguis fragilis) is one of the most well-known examples, commonly found throughout Europe and western Asia. This species is relatively small, reaching lengths of about one to two feet, and is often found hidden under rocks or in leaf litter.
In North America, the Glass Lizards, belonging to the genus Ophisaurus, are prevalent, particularly the Eastern Glass Lizard. These lizards can grow to lengths of up to four feet, with a tail that is notoriously fragile and prone to breaking off. The California Legless Lizard (Anniella pulchra) is a smaller, slender species found along the Pacific coast, typically measuring only a few inches.