Facts, Legends & Myths

Lizard facts

The smallest reptile in the world is the dwarf gecko. It can fit on the tip of your finger!

Geckos can make chirping and clicking noises to defend their territory or attract a mate.

The Madagascan chameleon Chamaeleo verrucosis has a sticky-tipped tongue which it can shoot out farther than the length of its body!

The six-lined racerunner Cnemidophorus sexlineatus holds the record for the fastest speed reached by a reptile on land—18 mph (29 kph).

To protect its feet from the hot sand, the sand lizard Lacerta agilis “dances” by lifting its legs up quickly, one at a time, or by resting its belly on the sand and lifting up all four legs at once!

Many lizards can lose their tail to distract or escape from a predator.  It will grow back, but without bone (just a rod of cartilage), and will be slimmer, shorter and a different color, with small scales.

Some horned lizards (Phrynosoma sp.) can squirt blood from their eyes up to 4 feet.

Herbivorous lizards such as the green iguana can conserve water by excreting excess salt from the blood stream through a nasal “salt gland.” This is what produces the crusty white substance often sneezed out by iguanas.

Some Indian tribes of North America used lizard tails in a recipe for love potions.

In India, live Monitor Lizards are used in fertility rites and serpent festivals, often bringing harm to the lizard. They are also eaten and their skin used for leather

In Egypt, it is said that in spring the lizards will climb an eastward facing wall and look to the east. When the Sun rises, the lizard's sight and the sight of some blinded person, will be returned.

In ancient Egypt and Greek symbolism the lizard represented divine wisdom and good fortune.

In Roman mythology, lizards supposedly sleep through the winter and so symbolize both death and resurrection.

In Australia, the aboriginal believed that the sky would fall if you killed one.

Early Christianity associated the lizard with the devil and with evil   they believed that the chameleon was used to symbolize Satan who, like the chameleon, could change his appearance to deceive mankind.

While on the Pacific islands of Polynesia and Maoris lizards are revered as a "heaven god."