Juvenile Five-lined Skink - photo from Herpnet.net
Lizards are closely related to snakes. Iowa’s five species of lizards are not very common.
Skinks have shiny, smooth, hard overlapping scales. Iowa skinks include the Northern prairie skink, five-lined skink, and great plains skink.
The slender glass lizard is a legless lizard with a long slender body. They can easily be confused with snakes. Unlike snakes, glass lizards have eyelids and external ear openings. They are a state endangered species found only in southern Iowa.
Six-lined racerunners belong to the family of lizards called whiptails because of their long, slender tails. These lizards are fast, running up to 18 miles an hour. Racerunners live in sandy habitats like Polk County’s Chichaqua Bottoms Greenbelt, where they are occasionally seen.