[S3E9] Worm Lizards: Undulating and Unknowable

Happy Halloween from your grasslands PR Team! This month, Rachel confronts one of her worst childhood fears to bring us a tale of the strange and slithering: a group of animals so odd and cryptic that the existence of many species was only confirmed after their habitat was bulldozed. We're delving into the fascinating world of worm lizards, a world full of unknowns that still begs to be explored. After all, how can we learn about an animal that's virtually impossible to observe in the wild? A fanged and ferocious creature that creeps below our feet, hearing our every step, and slipping ever deeper into the darkness... Primary Sources: Baeckens, S., García‐Roa, R., Martín, J., Ortega, J., Huyghe, K., & Damme, R. V. (2016). Fossorial and durophagous: implications of molluscivory for head size and bite capacity in a burrowing worm lizard. Journal of Zoology, 301(3), 193–205. Guynup, Sharon. (2021, June 6). “Race against time”: Saving the snakes and lizards of Brazil’s Cerrado. Mongabay Environmental News. García, E. R. (2020). How to maintain underground social relationships? Chemosensory sex, partner and self recognition in a fossorial amphisbaenian. PLoS ONE. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0237188 García, E. R. (2021). Offspring and adult chemosensory recognition by an amphisbaenian reptile may allow maintaining familiar links in the fossorial environment. Peerj. Ribeiro, L. B., Gomides, S. C., & Costa, H. C. (2020). A New Worm Lizard Species (Squamata: Amphisbaenidae: Amphisbaena) with Non-autotomic Tail, from Northeastern Brazil. Journal of Herpetology, 54(1), 9. Ortega, J. (2021). Going underground: short- and long-term movements may reveal the fossorial spatial ecology of an amphisbaenian. Movement Ecology. +++ More of Our Work +++ Website Facebook TikTok Twitch +++ Contact Us +++ Text/Call: (316)-512-8933 [email protected] +++ Support Us +++ Bonfire Merch Store CashApp: $GrasslandGroupies Or... donate directly to our org.