Western Slender Glass Lizard
Ophisaurus attenuatus

Statewide.  The western slender glass lizard is Oklahoma's only legless lizard.  Although it looks superficially like a snake, it has both eyelids and external ear openings, features that snakes never possess.  The glass lizard gets in name from the fact that, like most lizards, it exhibits tail autotomy.  That is it will drop its tail in predator evasion, but the tail will usually fall, or break, into many pieces, "shattering" like glass.  Due to their nature, it is unusual to see a large slender glass lizard with its original tail.  The regrown tail is usually shorter and duller in comparison to the original tail, which shares the bodies striping pattern and is about twice as long as the body (snout-vent length).

These lizards eat primarily insects, but have been known to take baby rodents from a nest.

Full body picture of an adult western slender glass lizard in Cherokee Co.