Four New Legless Lizards Discovered In California
Anniella grinnelli This is one of four new species of Anniella recently discovered in California. Photo by Alex Krohn They're not snakes. One species lives right by LAX. You always knew there was something creepy about LAX. Now, a pair of researchers has discovered four new species of legless lizards-technically not snakes-one of which lives underneath the dunes at the end of a runway at Los Angeles' major airport. The others live in other sandy areas in California. Although they look alike, legless lizards and snakes are only distantly related. If you trace their evolutionary history back far enough, snakes and other legless lizard species all descended from lizards, but after they split into different groups, the different groups each lost their legs independently. This means that while snakes are legless lizards, not all legless lizards are snakes. Until now, only one non-snake legless lizard species was known to live in California,...