#Sheltopusik

[giulliadella]

Day 38 of posting cute creatures we found on our field trip:

Sheltopusik also known as European legless lizard or blavor (Pseudopus apodus) is the largest European lizard. This animal is completely harmless, so don’t panic if you see it. They feed on insects, other small animals and eggs. They rarely bite and usually just poop on you in self defense:

They look very angry from the front:

And very sad and confused from above:

They are very big, over 150cm long at most. I love them beyond words. They can be kept as pets, but please don’t do that, they are all wild caught, because we don’t know how to breed them in captivity. They are super chill and fun to interact with, but don’t support wild animal trade please.

Legless lizards have ears and eyelids which snakes don’t have. They also have much different belly scales and much longer tails than snakes.

[herpsandbirds]

Sheltopusik or European Legless Lizard (Pseudopus apodus), family Anguidae, Georgia (the country)

Legless lizard.

photograph by Brecht Heusequin

[nightmaresyrup]

The Fekk snekk Sheltopusik!

[platycryptus]

This eastern glass lizard (Ophisaurus ventralis) is not a snake, but part of an unrelated group of legless lizards- you can tell because it has eyelids and external ear openings. They also aren‘t nearly as flexible as a real snake, with a more stiff slithering motion and lacking the ability to coil or wrap around things, but their limited degree of bendiness suits them just fine for gliding through the grass in search of crunchy insects and snails.

They‘re called glass lizards not due to their glassy-smooth scales, but because (unlike snakes) they readily shed their tails in sections when threatened, appearing to ‘shatter’ into two or more pieces. This individual is in the process of regenerating its tail and is shorter than normal, but in an intact individual the tail can be longer than the rest of the body and the lizard will basically break in half if handled too roughly.

(Florida, 4/17/23)

[chaobunnyarts]

April's Tiny Reptile and Mini Amphibian designs: Sheltopusik and Goliath Frog! 🦎🐸

Fun facts! Even though sheltopusik looks like a snake, it's actually a legless lizard! My Patreon can be found here.

[antiqueanimals]

Sheltopusik / European glass lizard (Pseudopus apodus)

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

Internet Archive

[ildarotyrannus]

The extinct sheltopusik Pseudopus pannonicus from the Neogene of Europe for another friend's Birthday. This species has the widest temporal and geographical distribution in the genus Pseudopus: its remains are described from the Upper Miocene-Lower Pleistocene of many European countries, including Spain in the west and Ukraine in the east. Many features of P. pannonicus are also present in modern P. apodus, so these species are sister species. In 2023, new material was described from locations in Moldova, the Northern Caucasus and Ukraine, among these bones is a fairly complete and the largest maxilla known for P. pannonicus, reaching almost 3.7 cm in length, as well as other fragments of skulls, vertebrae and osteoderms, in addition, the dentary of a juvenile individual is described. The entire skull could reach about 100 mm in length, making this species of sheltopusik the largest representative of its genus and Anguinae subfamily, to which the modern sheltopusik, as well as Dopasia, Ophisaurus and Anguis belong. Like its relatives today, it probably had a diet that mainly included animals with hard coats, and given its large size (given the proportions of modern P. apodus, P. pannonicus had a length of about 250 centimeters), then the food base could be much wider, including other reptiles and small mammals. Based on the skeletal reconstruction provided by my friend.

Black ballpoint pen and black colored pencil, 2023.

[demoniccow]

Show your support for these grumpy, misunderstood lizards by joining their (informal) club! The rules are simple: No smiling. Eat Snails. Roll like a rotisserie chicken if a human tries to pick you up. And, most importantly, Be Cool (because you're ectothermic, duh).

Shirt available at R.C. Murphy Designs.

[stormysprite]

ah yes, my animal keeper volunteer gig

or as I like to call it

a few hours inside Newt Scamander’s briefcase and at least 5-15 minutes of aggressive negotiations with this guy:

[getwhelmed]

thanks!! the mice are out of the pocket!!

and theyre not docile theyre just dead (theyre frozen pinkies, a little treat for my bearded dragon) (i took them from work hence the multiple trips in and out of the pocket) (and the latte break)(dw i dont work with alive mice anymore theyre store bought prefrozen)

i have several mice in my pocket DONT let me forget

[tom-at-the-farm]

I've been thinking about this post for a while, it's basically just Russian Animals That Are So Much Cooler Than Me

1.

So this is a kabarga (кабарга), a Siberian musk deer. When I was little my mother used to call me a kabarga whenever I did something whimsically endearing, and I was absolutely convinced it was a fake word she made up. Only very recently did I learn that it's actually a deer that grows tusks instead of antlers despite being a herbivore. It's like the kid who stuck breadsticks in his mouth pretending to be a walrus. I reached out to Mama Tom at the Farm for comment but as of publication time she has not replied to clarify why she called me this. I have to conclude the answer is "because it was funny."

2.

This is a European glass lizard but its name is absurdly Russian - sheltopusik, from "zhelto-puzik," which means "yellow bellied." It's a legless lizard that kinda looks like if an earthworm and Vladimir Putin had a baby, its belly is not yellow, and it has hemipenes - two damn dicks. Consult the second picture. Apparently this is like a normal snake/lizard thing, but I was definitely shook

3.

This Slavic mole is not particularly shocking or different from other moles for that matter, but I'm just including it for its Russian name - выхухоль, vy-khu-khol'. It's so silly! I call my cat that when he's sleepy and luxuriating in stretching himself. The moles in this picture are absolutely laughing at me for failing to deliver an interesting post, though. I don't blame them, but at least nobody can ever refer to me as a vykhukhol'

[herpsandbirds]

Do you have any reptiles native to Greece?

Greek Reptiles:

Mediterranean Chameleon (Chamaeleo chamaeleon), Samos Island, Greece

photograph by Benny Trapp

Peloponnese Wall Lizard (Podarcis peloponnesiacus), male, family Lacertidae, Gýtheion, Greece

photographs by Alberto González 

Sheltopusik aka European Legless Lizard aka Pallas’s Glass Lizard (Pseudopus apodus), family Anguidae, near Lake Kerkini, Greece

photographs by Hannah Price

Eastern Montpellier Snake (Malpolon insignitus), family Psammophiidae, Greece

photograph by Benny Trapp 

Slender Whip Snake (Platyceps najadum), family Colubridae, Samothraki Island, Greece

Photograph by Doru Panaitescu

European Rat Snake aka Leopard Snake (Zamenis situla), family Colubridae, Greece

photograph by Alberto González 

Herman’s tortoise (Testudo hermanni boettgeri), family Testudinidae, Macedonia, Greece

photograph by Thor Håkonsen

[aviculor]

I think we need to call a spade a spade here, the Snivy line are not snakes. They're skinks, or legless lizards. This is a sheltopusik.

Serperior's movepool is very lackluster, it's basically a one-trick pony of Contrary Leaf Storm. I suppose when all you have is a hammer, everything looks like a nail, right? But what does it even do when it's at +6 special attack? More grass moves? Hyper Beam and Dragon Pulse don't exactly provide type coverage. That said, Louis XVIII is a keeper. He whipped ass in his first 6 star tera raid against a ground type Golurk.

[scienceambersandfantasy]

Sabertooth Tigers

Smilodon, Sabre cat, Murder cat, Dagger mouth, Liger, Bearcat

Somewhere in Pleistocene Hungary, a sabercat faces a huge sheltopusik, Pseudopus pannonicus!

Art by HodariNundu

[chaobunnyarts]

April Tiny Reptile and Mini Amphibian pin previews:  Sheltopusik and Goliath Frog 🦎🐸

The sheltopusik is indeed a legless lizard and not a snake!

If you sign up to my Patreon pin club before March ends, you'll receive these designs in April!

[cicadianrhythm]

This guy is like the Bill Nye of reptile information, and the Legless Lizard Sheltopusik is like nothing I've ever seen.