Who Runs the World? (Lizards) Trivia Quiz

Answer:

Though it looks like a snake, the slow worm is actually a legless lizard with eyelids and the ability to shed its tail when threatened. It belongs to the family Anguidae, making it a true lizard despite its serpentine appearance.

The Komodo dragon is the largest living lizard, found in Indonesia, and capable of growing over three meters long and delivering a venomous bite. It belongs to the monitor lizard family, a group of powerful, often carnivorous, lizards. Another member is the Nile monitor which is a powerful swimmer and climber. It can be found in central Africa.

The Gila monster is a strikingly patterned lizard and is one of the few venomous lizards in the world, using its bite to subdue prey. It is native to the southwestern United States and northwestern Mexico, but it often stays underground to avoid the desert heat.

Leopard geckos are ground-dwelling, nocturnal lizards popular in the pet trade due to their calm nature and the fact that they have eyelids, extremely unusual among geckos. Geckos are part of the lizard family and share most of the lizard traits with their cousins.

Native to the island of Saba, the Saban black iguana is a melanistic (dark-coloured) form of the common green iguana. The iguana family is a diverse group of lizards, primarily found in the New World, known for its many species of herbivorous reptiles.

The Argentine tegu is a large, intelligent lizard capable of seasonal endothermy (partial warm-bloodedness) and can be tamed as a pet. Tegus, whiptails, and racerunners are all active, often fast-moving lizards native to the Americas, belonging to the same family, characterized by their slender bodies, long tails, and typically granular scales on their backs with larger rectangular scales on their bellies.

The fire skink boasts bright red and gold scales, making it one of the most visually stunning skinks. Skinks themselves are a diverse and widespread family of lizards characterized by their typically smooth, shiny scales, cylindrical bodies, and often reduced or absent limbs, some resembling snakes.

Known for its three horn-like protrusions and colour-changing abilities, Jackson's chameleon is native to East Africa. These are a unique family of Old World lizards renowned for their unique ability to rapidly change skin colour for camouflage and communication, along with their specialized independently moving eyes, projectile tongues, and prehensile tails.

The armoured pricklenape is a spiny, dragon-like lizard which is native to Southeast Asia and uses its camouflage to blend into forest floors. Pricklenapes are a type of lizard found in Asia, easily recognized by the prominent, spiky crest of scales that runs along the back of their necks (napes), giving them their distinctive 'prickle-nape' appearance. The thorny devil is also from this family of lizards. It uses its bizarre look as camouflage and also to collect water in an arid climate.

False agamas are colourful desert lizards known for the males' brilliant blue breeding colours. Though not a real member of the agama family, agamas are a widespread group of lizards found in many places in Asia, Europe and Africa, known for their typically rough, keeled scales, and many species are characterized by their ability to change coluor, especially males during breeding season.

The jeweled lacerta is a large, green lizard with iridescent blue spots is native to southwestern Europe. These lacertas are a family of true lizards, often called wall or rock lizards, which are known for their colours.

Often called the "American chameleon" for its colour-changing ability, the green anole is quite common in the southern US. These anoles are small to medium-sized tree-dwelling lizards with a dewlap (throat frill) that males display for communicating, mating, and territorial claims.

Also known as the European legless lizard, the sheltopusik has external ear openings and eyelids, proving it's not a snake. They can be found in Asia and Europe.

The incorrect answers are all animals, but not related to lizards. The blue jay and the cassowary are birds, the capybara a large rodent while an aye-aye looks like a rodent but is actually a primate, as is a tarsier. A pangolin is a scaly mammal, and a quokka is a marsupial. So is the numbat. Finally, the eagle ray is a fish.