Reptile & Amphibian Forums

This snake was sitting on my driveway in Pensacola, Fl. I tried an on-line guide to Florida snakes, but could not figure out what snake it is. I let it hide in the grass, and it may be still hanging around. I guess it is not poisonous, and I know it is not aggressive at all. I am just curious what kind it is.

Thank you!

It actually looks like a legless lizard, not sure what species though, beautiful specimen!
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1.1 Rosy Boa
0.1 Mexican Rosy Boa
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It is an eastern glass lizard! It is on the link posted!
http://www.southalley.com/album_lizard.html

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1.1 Rosy Boa
0.1 Mexican Rosy Boa
1.0 Coastal Carpet Python
1.0 Miniature Daschund

Not a snake but actually an Eastern Glass Lizard! Great find! At a glance the only way I can tell if something is a legless or glass lizard instead of a snake is the shape of the head. Glass lizards also have visible ear openings and movable eyelids which snakes lack.

If you flip them over, you'll also find that they have small scales on their bellies, similar to their sides, rather than wide belly plates like a snake. And if you locate the vent you'll see that 50% or so of the animal is tail where on a snake the tail is maybe 10-15% of the length (more in a few species but much less than on a legless lizard).

Of course, this example is missing a lot of it's tail...
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What goes up must come down...unless it exceeds escape velocity.

That's right,....a legless lizard, also commonly known as a "Glass Snake". They are extremely common throughout Florida, and underneath just about every trash pile.

~Doug
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"Better to be silent and thought a fool, than to open mouth and remove any doubt!"

Here is the latin name Ophisaurus ventralis.
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1.1 Rosy Boa
0.1 Mexican Rosy Boa
1.0 Coastal Carpet Python
1.0 Miniature Daschund

Hey, where do you live? I haven't seen one in 30 years. I bet they'd be just the thing for coral snakes...
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What goes up must come down...unless it exceeds escape velocity.

Larry,...

Right now I live on the central coast of Florida where I've seen several just in the past few months. But before moving up here a few years ago, I lived in south Florida in Ft. Lauderdale. In 1965 my parents moved there from Sarasota, Florida, and growing up there as a kid I saw TONS of those things!. Like I said earlier, they were at the bottom of just about every trash pile there was. Almost everytime I cut the grass I saw one or two trying to scurry out of the way of my lawn mower. I kept a Florida King I had at the time very happy by tossing him one or two every now and then.

And yes,....the small ones would make fine dining for Coral Snakes, and Scarlet Kings, etc...

~Doug
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"Better to be silent and thought a fool, than to open mouth and remove any doubt!"

Thank you all! I had no idea there are snake-like lizards here. As for the exact location of this specimen - I spotted it at
N 30 32.795 W 87 14.691.

poor lizard lost his legs
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