Can you show us the weirdest animal in Mexico?
Paxon:
Why yes! I have posted this long ago, but it's time to show them off again!!!
Mexican Mole Lizard (Bipes biporus), family Bipedidae, endemic to the Baja California peninsula of Mexico
This 2 limbed lizard is fossorial (burrowing underground). They breed and lay their eggs underground.
It is one of only 3 amphisbaenians that have limbs.
They are the pinkest when young, and turn whiter as the mature.
Though they are rarely seen, they may actually be quite common in their range.
As with many burrowing creatures shaped like this (such as legless lizards and caecilians), there is a belief among some local people that they enter the anuses of people who defecate outside… this is, of course, not true. (Many of these animals are called “tapaculo”).
photos by Carl J Franklin, Dante Fenolio, & Mike Pingleton
photograph by Adam G. Clause
