Earless Monitor Lizards: the “Holy Grail” of Reptiles That Looks Like a Mini Dragon

According to Animal Diversity Web, earless monitor lizards’ unusual appearance led scientists to think they were a missing link between snakes and lizards, but this was later refuted.

The species is the only known member of its family, Lanthanotidae, which means researchers haven’t found anything else quite like them alive today. The most recent common ancestor of this lizard is thought to have diverged in the Cretaceous period (145 million to 66 million years ago).

Earless monitor lizards (Lanthanotus borneensis) grow up to 1.6 feet (50 cm) long, with slender bodies, tiny limbs and tails they can grasp things with. Their heads lack external ears, hence the earless monitor lizard moniker, and their lower eyelids — which they close when underwater — are translucent.

They are endemic to Borneo, where they are threatened by a combination of deforestation and the pet trade, according to the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species.