Nov 23, 2007

Both Ways

Nemo Ramjet came across this Typhlops vermicularis at Olympos, a "campers' and stoners' paradise near Antalya," Turkey.

The second shot is of a Blanus strauchi, which belongs to one of my favorite classifications of reptiles: amphisbaenians. As Nemo points out, this word comes from the Greek. Amphisbaena, means something like "both ways." (meaning, their scales allows them to slide forward and backward.

I love creatures that are so simple, they never have to change. That's my ultimate goal for myself.

Thanks for the photos, Nemo.

Photo soure: Nemo Ramjet

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

ok, the first one kinda bothers me, it looks like a sandworm, you know, like from Dune. The second one is kinda cute, at least as cute as a snake can be

Arachnophile said...

For some reason, that first picture won't download for me. I'll assume it's my machine, not yours... *SIGH*

Good ol' "Amphisbaena", I used one of these 'guys' that you posted earlier in a quiz for the kids I work with. Most of them didn't believe they were real. They know now. ;)

Sadly, they belived that the MOON-HEAD lizard was real. City kids need to spend more time around real critters. ;)

Happy post-Thanksgiving my American friends.

C. M. K. said...

thanks for the feature! But I guess there is a little mistake with the labeling, the first critter is the amphisbaenian, while the second one is the blindsnake. Easy to confuse when they are both eyeless, armless, legless, colorless, earless beasts. =)