Gallery: Blood-Squirting Lizards and More Awesome Reptiles and Amphibians
Josh Valcarcel/WIRED01-G3A9076
Meet *Glyphoglossus molossus*, also known appropriately enough as the balloon frog. It’s a burrower, though not much else is known about it other than it’s in trouble. In Southeast Asia, it’s being over-harvested as a source of food, and accordingly the IUCN has labeled it as a [near-threatened species](http://www.iucnredlist.org/details/57820/0).
Josh Valcarcel/WIRED02-G3A9032
Here’s [my favorite camouflager on Earth](https://www.wired.com/2014/07/absurd-creature-of-the-week-satanic-leaf-tailed-gecko/), the satanic leaf-tailed gecko. Calling the forests of Madagascar home, this gecko has over millennia evolved to look exactly like a leaf, complete with veins and chunks missing that make it look like material has rotted away. It’s astounding. But if for some reason their ruse fails, they can scare off predators by flashing their tongues and screaming. Not unlike myself.
Josh Valcarcel/WIRED03-G3A9040
The satanic leaf-tailed gecko's famously sticky feet, which utilize tiny hairs to get a grip.
Josh Valcarcel/WIRED04-G3A9023
This isn’t called the harlequin poison frog because it’s funny. Quite the opposite, really. Its loud, bright colors (usually yellow or orange—preserved specimens like this one have their colors leached out over time) are a clear warning that its toxic skin isn’t something you want to put in your mouth. Native peoples in its Colombian habitat famously coat their darts with the frog’s toxins, which will remain effective for [up to a year.](http://animaldiversity.ummz.umich.edu/site/accounts/information/Dendrobates_histrionicus.html)
Josh Valcarcel/WIRED05-G3A9048
It looks an awful lot like the earthworm from *James and the Giant Peach*, but that’s no worm. It’s actually a legless amphibian known as a caecilian, though much like earthworms it’s a burrower. You can just barely make them out here, but caecilians have needle-like teeth that they use to snag invertebrates and, occasionally, snakes and lizards. Oh, also: The newborns of some species will [eat their mother’s extra skin](https://www.wired.com/2013/11/the-creature-feature-10-fun-facts-about-caecilians-or-this-amphibian-is-one-in-a-caecilian/). ¯\\\_(ツ)\_/¯
Josh Valcarcel/WIRED06-G3A8997
A white-lipped pit viper, [*Trimeresurus albolabris*](http://www.iucnredlist.org/details/178433/0), is normally green but here appears blue (again, preservation does weird things to a specimen’s colors). This venomous species goes after rodents and such, but will occasionally tangle with humans, though bites aren’t typically fatal. “Pit” refers to the heat-sensing pits on their noses, not because they like hanging out in holes. Though maybe they do. Who am I to say.
Josh Valcarcel/WIRED07-G3A8965
At left, a horned lizard from North America, *Phrynosoma horridus*. At right, the thorny devil, *Moloch horridus*, from Australia. While both groups have independently evolved similar thorny defenses, a phenomenon known as convergent evolution, some species of horned lizard have an extra defense: [They fire blood out of their eyes](http://www.zo.utexas.edu/faculty/pianka/phryno.html). Coyotes who have snatched these have been known to drop them after getting a mouthful of blood.
Josh Valcarcel/WIRED08-G3A8945
The infamous [banded sea krait](http://animaldiversity.ummz.umich.edu/accounts/Laticauda_colubrina/) of Southeast Asia is marvelously adapted to hunting in the ocean, with an expanded lung and a broadened tail that almost looks like a fish’s fin. Their extremely powerful neurotoxic venom shuts down muscles of its favorite prey, eels, immobilizing them and seizing up their breathing. Luckily, they tend to shy away from humans. Unless you question what it’s doing in the ocean. DON’T do that.
