Leaping Lizards

Komodo Dragon

Chameleon

    The Komodo Dragon is the biggest lizard in the world. It can grow up to 10 feet long and can weigh up to 300 pounds! The smallest lizard ever found was the Yellow-bellied House Gecko - it is tiny. In fact, it is so small that it can fit on the end of your finger! Lizards eat mosqitoes, cockroaches, worms, and spiders.  Snakes, big birds, owls, and cats like to eat lizards. Chameleons are a kind of lizard which changes their color to hide from enemies. The frilled lizard however, spreads a ruffle around its neck that makes it look too scary and too big to eat for their enemies. Some lizards have a useful trick- they break off their tail and run away. After these lizards run away, they grow a new tail after a few days. Lizards shed their skin, which means they grow but their skin doesn't grow so it forms new skin under its old skin, then the old skin falls off revealing its new skin. The lizard's life cycle is really short. First the mother lays eggs, next tiny lizards pop out then it grows to an adult.

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Bredeson, Carmen. Fun Facts About Lizards. NJ: Enslow Publishers, Inc., 2008.     

Cowley, Joy. Chameleon, Chameleon. NY: Scholastic Press, 2005.