#wall lizard

Milos Wall Lizard (Podarcis milensis), male, family Lacertidae, Milos Island, Greece

In honour of our friends the lizards, who will no longer be seen for a while.

Yesterday, an earthquake shook the narrow coastal lands between the Atlantic Ocean to the west and the great dry abyss to the east. A landslide allowed the water to break through the narrow strip of high land and begin flooding in. The incredible power of the ocean violently widened the gap and eroded the lowlands beyond, creating an ever growing chasm and the biggest waterfall on the planet by the next day.

With the very ground under their feet unsure and brittle and the sea rushing in ever faster, some of the local animals have fled to the top of a large nearby rock outcropping that will one day be named Gibraltar. The only ones who don't seem disturbed are the Pelagornis and other sea birds, who have discovered some aerial acrobatics let them catch the fish being swept up in the flood. Though even for a bird the size of Pelagornis, an unfortunate humpback whale is way too big of a catch.

Dalmatian wall lizard (Podarcis melisellensis) is a small, pretty lizard native to the Mediterranean. This one up there is a male. Males have bright yellow, red or blue throat and more spots than females who are more dull in color.

We found a female too. She was very cute. Here’s a photo of her next to the male so that you can see the difference: