#tuataras

Natural History in Zoological Gardens, by Frank E. Beddard. Illustration by Winifred Austen. 1905.

For the majority of the animal kingdom, the sex of their young is random. However, many species can actually influence their offspring’s sex by altering the temperature at which their eggs incubate! This phenomenon is called temperature-dependent sex determination, and has been observed in most reptiles and some species of fish. The most common example of this is turtles, which choose where to build their nests based on the amount of sun or shade. Cooler incubation temperatures, generally below 27.7°C produce males, while warmer temperatures produce females.

You get a semi-formatted infodump, because i’m taking my time with this anyways aklfjskdjf :>

Basilisk lizards can run on water! They live in rainforests, by the water. If they see a predator, like a snake or bird, trying to ambush them, then they jump out of their tree, and when they hit the water they start running. their feet are webbed in a way that allows them to run 15 feet before they start swimming. their tail helps them balance. 

Chinese water dragons have really fucking long tails. Like ⅔ of them is tail. It also lives near water, but instead of running on the water, it goes underneath it and hides. It can hold it’s breath for up to 25 minutes, and it swims fast enough to catch fish! Kind of like tUATARAS *gets shot* , they have a ‘third eye’ on the top of their head that detects light levels! excerpt from book, "this ability helps its body tune in to the rhythm of day and night and also to adjust its body temperature."

Despite my tumblr url i am actually pretty normal(/g) about lizards compared to.. SNKAESKES!!?!?!!?!!

LOVE THEM. THEY ARE NOODLES THEY ARE DANGER NOODLES. SOME OF THEM CAN KILL YOU BUT THEY ARE *SO COOL*.

The world’s longest (not biggest-) snake is the Reticulated Python, the longest one found being 32 feet and 10 inches in length! Hatchlings are born at an astounding-for-a-baby-danger-noodle 2 FEET LONG!!! They start off eating birds and small rodents but graduate to eating animals as large as *DEER* when they are full grown. Holy shit akfjslkdjfaslkfj??

Burmese pythons are interesting for a different reason. They are endangered in their native areas in South/Southeast Asia, but they are thriving in a place they aren’t supposed to be; Florida. Nobody knows how they got there, but there is an estimated population of 30,000 to 100,000 snakes. smh

BALL PYTHONS. THE BEST DANGER NOODLE (IN MY VERY HUMBLE NOT BIASED OPINION). Instead of coiling up in the Traditional Snake Pose™ they curl up into a ball with their head in the middle. The ball is so tight that it can be rolled around and the little snek won’t get hurt! they normally hang out in their burrows, however. They hunt at night and are an Ally with the farmers bc they eat rodents. yay!

OHOHOHOHO. GREEN ANACONDAS. THE MECHA DANGER NOODLE. THE LARGEST SNAKE (not as long as reticulated pythons but they are heavier). They can weigh as much as 550 pounds, which is half the size of a horse. Woah. females are bigger than males (gaslight gatekeep girlboss) and they are cool idk. I don’t actually care about them very much but their huge so i am legally obligated to mention them. fdjklfajdfakfdjaklfja;lfjalkdfjalfjlakfj;fj;afj

(theres a whole section on turtples and another on crocidlse that i do not feel like looking at rn maybe later)

*EVIL LAUGHTER*

***TUATARAS!!!!!!!! YESSSSSS!!!!!***

THESE FUCKERS. I LOVE THEM. I AM SO PASSIONATE ABOUT THESE LIZARD-NOT-LIZARDS I COULD LITERALLY IMPLODE RIGHT NOW, i’m gonna repeat some information just so you know bljdkfjalkfbadba. They descended from an entirely different line of reptiles than lizards/snakes did, and they're the only ones left. The final reptile!!! *duna da na. Dada da da daaaa!!!!!* /j

It’s third eye is actually to detect light levels. Adult tuataras eat baby tuataras, that’s right they’re stupid idiot cannabils /aff

They take up to 35 years to reach full size and can’t reproduce until they are 10 or 20 years old. Eggs take 2 years to develop in the females body and after laying they take 16 months to hatch. The reason they are so chill is because they are adapted to New Zealands low temperatures, remaining active at much lower temperatures than other reptiles. They almost went extinct because of rats, but they have recovered fully now! 

They chew their food in a weird way, moving their lower jaw back and forth and cutting the food like scissors. Also sometimes they’ll find a seabird’s burrow and move in, even if they are currently living in the burrow. They’ll eat the eggs/chicks too. They literally just say “fuck you I live here now” and there’s nothing they can do about it its so funny akfjasfk.

Reptiles and Amphibians of the World. Written by Hans Hvass. Illustrated by Wilhelm Eigener. Originally published in 1958.

Ranger Rick's Nature Magazine; March 1979 edition. Illustration by Peter Zallinger.

Animal Ghosts. Edited by Claudia Clow. Illustrated by Walt Disney Productions. 1971.

The Quizzer Book of Knowledge: Nature. Written and edited by George Beal. 1978.