Animal facts

Do lizards blink?

do lizards blink

Lizards are very common animals. Basically, the species of lizards are amphibians; this is because this lizards survive on water and on land. In this article we will be committed to sharing a few details about the lizard, but more importantly, we will be concerned with answering the question: “Do lizards blink?” Well humans have eyes close their eyelids, and living organisms that have eyelids also have the ability to blink their eyelids. The various species of lizards have eyes, they also have eyelids, so chances are that they blink.

This is just a clue into what we will be sharing with you in this article, the following sections will show a lot more.

It is important to identify that there are more than five thousand species of lizards on earth that inhabit different terrestrial habitats. The different species of lizards are well identified members of the class Reptilia, which share some similarities with the reptile snakes. Also, observational facts have found that there are some species of lizards, whose physical appearances have really exceeded sharing striking similarities with the snake, to looking just as much as the physical appearance of the snake is, hence these species of lizards are mostly identified as the sheltopusiks.

Species of lizards are famously identified as archeologists to be one of the oldest inhabitants of the planet earth, and have even existed for over two hundred million years ago. Zoologists have also said that some evolutionary species of lizard present in the world today, share very striking strong similarities with the reptiles that are believed to have gone extinct like the dinosaur.

Features of lizards:

Remember that we have left you a clue to the answer to question if lizards blink. We are super excited that you trust us enough to read it, but we want to lead you to the answer rather than tell you that it is a yes, or answer in affirmation. To the question in this article, which happens to also be the title of this article. Hence, we will be sharing the bodily features or the bodily characteristics of a lizard.

Most species of lizards are easily identified with a head that is quite tiny, an almost invisible neck, and a long and sizeable body which has a tail at its end. Some of these bodily features include the following:

  • Sense of Sight:

Every animal needs the sense of sight for survival. They need to navigate their movements, to see their prey and know when to launch an attack, and to also see their predators, and know when to run or escape from a current location. The eyes need to shield from any form of danger, so most of the species of lizards have eyelids which keep the eyes of the lizards safe from any lurking danger, by blinking.

However, in the same vein there are species of lizards who do not have eyelids, and so are able to blink, but then they have a thin layer that looks like a scale which shields the eyeball, and they clean their using their tongues. Whether it is light they need to defend their eyes from, the thin layer or membrane does it for them.

More so, the sense of sight is used to communicate, as strange as it sounds, there are different species of lizards like the iguanas who identify each other and equally communicate by the means of those colours. These species of lizards have very distinct parts of the body, which enables them to communicate with each other, and also separate the male species from the female species.

  • Sense of Taste:

Like most reptiles, the tongue in the body of the lizard serves a whole lot of purposes. For instance, the tongue can be used to clean the eyes especially for species of lizards that are not able to blink as a result of the absence of eyelids. The tongue is also used to capture preys, and food during food hunt. The length of the tongue is largely dependent on the specie of lizard it is.

  • Sense of Smell:

Another important feature or characteristics of the lizard is the sense of smell. The species of lizard can smell their food, their enemies, or their mates, and even catch the very minute scents of particles from the mixed atmosphere; better put, the air by letting out the sticky tongue, and pulling back the sticky tongue. More often than not, this usually leaves the stuck items on the roof of the mouth, which is a carrier of the sensory cells. You must have guessed the sense of smell by now, it is the nose.

  • Sense of Hearing:

Lizards have another interesting feature, which is the ability to hear. The different species of lizards have a very keen sense of hearing. This attentive sense of hearing is as a result of the very open ear of the species of lizard. Many living organisms have ear drums, mammals especially, but the various species of lizards do not have any ear drum inside the ear, which makes it very possible for the various species of lizards to have a superficial sense of hearing.

So, the already mentioned open ear (opening in the ear) makes it possible for the various species of lizards to get all sounds as quickly as possible. They even have a better ability to hear than the snakes. It is also important to note that the different species or types of lizards have eardrums by the side, beneath their ears.

Why do the different species of lizards blink?

By now you should know that lizards blink, whether it is agama lizard or any species of lizard at all, as long as the specie of lizard has eye lids, then it definitely has the ability to blink, just like humans, and just like every other animal that has eyelids.

Now in this section, we will try to answer the question of why the different species of lizards blink. It could give us an insight into the reason other living organisms with eye lids blink too.

Here are a few reasons why the species of lizards that have eyelids blink:

  1. To clean up the eyes
  2. To shield the eye from danger
  3. To communicate
  4. To protect the eye from bright lights
  5. To keep the eyes healthy

These reasons will be properly explained in details of the following paragraphs or sections.

1. To Clean up the Eyes:

One of the most important activity the eye needs to indulge in is the cleaning of the eye. To clean the eye is as easy as it sounds, yet as difficult as the task of cleaning is. It is easy in that the mechanism employed to clean up the eye is not farfetched, but it is difficult in that the mechanism has to undergo certain efforts. The ability to blink is very important as it helps in the cleaning of the eyes of the various species of lizards that have eyelids. After the eyes are cleaned, the various species of lizards are able to see clearly.

2.To Shield the Eye from Danger:

Sometimes the act of blinking is an involuntary movement or act in the human body. The various species of lizard usually blink at the sight of danger. For instance, a lizard could be crawling and unconsciously stumble upon a sharp object, or even meet prey accidentally, the species of lizard blinks in a bid to shield the eye from danger. After they blink, they move away from the spot and carefully watch out. Sometimes they do not move away entirely, they only adjust to see what danger could be in the way.

3.To Communicate:

We have established in one of the preceding sections or paragraphs that the various species of lizards communicate through lights, using the sense of sight. This is usually done through blinking and nodding as has been observed from the activities and the features of the lizard. So sometimes when a lizard is blinking, it just could be simply the lizards trying to communicate.

4.To Protect the Eye from Bright light:

Sometimes humans blink, or cover their faces using their hands as a result of the brightness of the light. This is usually done to protect the eyes from the bright light. In the same vein, when the light is too bright, the species of lizards try to gain control of the amount of light that gets into it by blinking.

5.To Keep the Eyes Healthy:

The crux or rather the entire details of the reason lizards blinks is summed in their natural urge to survive, it is the same will that thrives in most living organisms. So the species of lizards seek to keep their eyes healthy by blinking. In other words, the eyes stays healthy when they are preserved from a very bright light, from danger, when it is washed by blinking to stay clean; and a healthy eye is however very necessary for communication.

Conclusively, lizards with eyelids blink and this blinking has a lot of healthy benefits attached to it.