Legless lizard discovered near LAX (and no, it's not a snake)

[Eugene]

Source: Los Angeles Times

Legless lizard discovered near LAX (and no, it's not a snake)

By Deborah Netburn
September 18, 2013, 6:34 p.m.

Scientists have discovered four new species of legless lizards in California, including one species that lives beneath the sand dunes near LAX.

But before we go on, let's get one thing straight: Yes, a snake is a legless lizard, but not all legless lizards are snakes.

Throughout the history of lizard evolution, several lizard lineages have lost their legs, explains James Parham of Cal State Fullerton. Snakes are the best-known and most diverse of these lineages, but more than 200 other types of limbless lizards exist throughout the world.

Here in California, a total of five legless lizard species have been identified, all of them part of a group called Anniella. Four of these legless lizards are new to science, and were recently described in the journal Breviora, a publication of the Museum of Comparative Zoology at Harvard University.

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Read more: http://www.latimes.com/science/sciencenow/la-sci-sn-legless-lizard-lax-20130918,0,3095241.story

[LiberalEsto]

1. And just which GOP mermber of Congress was this? nt

[eppur_se_muova]

2. You're thinking heartless, not legless.

Or maybe brainless.