Pandorasaurus

Jul 3 2010, 04:20 PM

I don't think butterfly wings can lift us heavy vertebrates. Stick with bats.

The terrasquitos are VERY unlikely. In fact, MOSQUITOS ARE HERBIVORES! They fill the same niche as bees. The only reason females suck blood is that the eggs need it, but only a few mosquitos need blood.

Iguanas? In a dry area? Better for another lizard. Iguanas are herbivores too, but most other lizards are insectivores.

Anguids

 

Anguid lizards are characterized by elongated, shiny, and stiff bodies and tails, closeable eyelids, external ear openings, and tiny (or absent) legs and toes. The stiffness is a result of an abundance of bony armor (osteoderms) in the skin. Many species are so stiff they could not expand to breathe were it not for a lengthwise flexible groove of soft granular scales along the sides. All the species in North America have this groove.

Most anguids are terrestrial or burrowing. While some species will bite, the primary defenses are fleeing, smearing an attacker with excrement, and giving up part of the tail. In some species the tail vertebrae have fracture planes along which the tail will readily break, leaving the writhing tip to be eaten by the predator while the rest of the lizard crawls to safety. In legless species, in which the tail may account for more than half the total length, the loss of a tail may give the impression that the lizard has been broken in two. Contrary to foklore, the part will not grow together again, but the body will grow a new tail in several weeks. Anguids are carnivores, they consume insects, small mammals, and other lizards. Most are egg layers, but a few mountain dwellers bear live young.

Helodermatids

 

Gila monsters are heavy bodied, with short stout legs and a thick tail. With an abundance of food the tail becomes fat. During periods of scarcity, the tail may lose up to 20% of its bulk as the stored fat is used up. On the back and head are non overlapping beadlike scales of shiny black, pink, or yellow. The scales contain osteoderms, a sort of body armor.

Gila monsters are venomous carnivores that seems to rely more on taste and smell to locate their quarry than on sight. They have been observed tracking prey by tasting the ground with their long thick tongues. Their venom causes great pain, but rarely human death. It is the persistent grip of a Gila monster's jaw that is the single most important reason for handling these lizards carefully.