#British reptiles

[calochortus]

Viviparous Lizard (Zootoca vivipara) by Will Atkins Via Flickr: female

[thavron]

Yes yes yes! We have several species of reptile in this country. Both lizards and snakes. My brother has slow worms in his garden, which are in fact legless lizards and not snakes as many people think.

Ok yes of course you have lizards. I ... uh ... am also British and a bit older than you and the first lizard-ish thing I remember seeing was in Australia age 19. And admittedly I grew up on a tiny island known for the absence of many such things (I saw a frog when I was 12, a non-flattened hedgehog at much the same age) but I had somehow missed the concepts of 'lizards' as a British thing. No, I don't know how either.

This is so charmingly mad to me. It's like if someone turned to me and went "Wait, we have PIGEONS???" Like yes oh my god come with me to the heathland let's lift some refugia together I can show you lizards

[sitting-on-me-bum]

A smooth helmeted iguana clings to a mossy tree trunk, well camouflaged.

Photograph: Javier Lobon-Rovira

The British Ecological Society Annual Capturing Ecology Competition

[aisphotostuff]

Terrapins in Peckham rye park.. by Adam Swaine Via Flickr: The most common terrapin in the UK is the red-eared terrapin,Terrapins lie somewhere between turtles and tortoises. They happily live in water but also like to bask in the sun. Like turtles, they are omnivores.

[forestnymphingaround]

[pandaakatsuki]

That post about the husbands as ANCH Blathers and Flick? Yeah Well my headcanon is that Aziraphale has a private book collection on the island and whenever Crowley is there to survey the local flora and maintain the community blooms, he usually makes a trip to Aegolius' Boobookery House to 'save' the 'entomophobic' bookkeeper from household pests and then stays for a grateful nightcap

[weirdlookindog]

Rasputin, the Mad Monk (1966) & The Reptile (1966)

[halloweenhundreds]

The Reptile is the Hammer movie I always mix up in my memory with The Gorgon. The wife in this isn’t completely useless and there’s a lot of unique touches but it just ends up feeling deflated and racist. Good hustle from everyone but it doesn’t show on the scoreboard.

[arthistoryanimalia]

For #TurtleTuesday:

Ki-ki myo-myo 亀喜妙々(Strange and Marvellous Turtles of Happiness) by Utagawa Kuniyoshi 歌川国芳 (1797-1861), Japan, Edo period, 1847-1852. Triptych woodblock print (nishiki-e), ink and color on paper, H 3.58 cm x W 7.40 cm. British Museum.

More info about the context of this image via The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York: "Working at the end of the Edo period, the ingenious and prolific print artist Kuniyoshi brings the story of actors’ likenesses to a comic culmination in his depiction of twenty-three turtles, each with the face of a famous Kabuki actor of the day, scurrying around a red lacquer sake cup. Newly enforced publishing censorship rules from the Tenpō Reforms (1841–43) prohibited printmakers from making identifiable pictures of actors or courtesans."

[moviesandmania]

THE REPTILE (1966) Reviews of Hammer snake woman horror

‘What strange power made her half woman – half snake?’ The Reptile is a 1966 British horror film about villagers dying from mysterious snake bites which the coroner deems to be heart attacks until a family of newcomers starts an investigation. Directed by John Gilling (back-to-back with The Plague of the Zombies) from a screenplay by John Elder [Anthony Hinds]. The  Hammer Film production stars…

[schlock-luster-video]

On January 5, 1967, The Reptile debuted in Mexico.

[panicinthestudio]

Gold bracelet in the form of a coiled snake, 1st century CE

Pompeii, Roman, Naples

Gold

Dimensions: 8 x 8.80 x 3 cm

Collection of the British Museum

A Roman gold bracelet in the form of a coiled snake, it’s from Pompeii, circa 1st AD. 

Source 

[arrghigiveup]

[...] there was a unique sight in the final practice session on Saturday ahead of Sunday’s Singapore Grand Prix when an adventurous lizard put a halt to proceedings. The curious reptile ventured onto the Marina Bay Street Circuit, running around without a care in the world while cars sped past at frightening speeds. To protect the drivers – and the lizard – the session was red flagged, meaning all drivers had to return to the pitlane while the reptile was removed. The official Formula One X account called it the “weirdest red flag ever,” while some of the drivers were clearly perplexed by the lizard. Mercedes driver George Russell could be heard asking: “What on earth is that thing?!” After his engineers informed him it was a lizard, the British driver replied: “A what?! It looks like a dragon!” As the drivers returned to the pitlane, it was left to the marshals to remove the lizard from the track so racing could continue. https://edition.cnn.com/2024/09/21/sport/f1-lizard-practice-singapore-spt-intl/index.html

Bonus:

[sitting-on-me-bum]

A 2017 photo of Jonathan, a Seychelles giant tortoise thought to be the oldest reptile living on Earth. Jonathan lives on Saint Helena, a British Overseas Territory in the South Atlantic Ocean.

(Image credit: Gianluigi Guercia / AFP via Getty Images)

[aisphotostuff]

Terrapin in the Wild London Pond.. by Adam Swaine Via Flickr: The most common terrapin in the UK is the red-eared terrapin, which was brought to the country from the USA as a pet in the 1980s. Other terrapins that have been spotted in the UK include European pond terrapins and snapping turtles..Terrapins lie somewhere between turtles and tortoises. They happily live in water but also like to bask in the sun. Like turtles, they are omnivores. Unlike them, they don’t have flippers. Instead, they have webbed feet—unlike their land cousins that have feet.