Lizards & Snakes: Alive! If you are coming to the Museum on
Sunday, May 26, please use one of the following entrances: 79th
Street and Central Park West, subway entrance, or Weston
Pavilion (Columbus Avenue entrance). The 81st Street entrance
will be closed, but the Hayden Planetarium Space Show will be
shown on a normal schedule. Small and shy—or big and fierce?
Bright as a jewel—or hardly visible? Four legs? Two legs? No
legs at all? When you're talking about lizards and snakes—the
squamates—the answer is usually.... Yes! This ancient group,
whose scientific name is Latin for "scaled," is more diverse
than mammals, as old as dinosaurs. And they're almost
everywhere: harsh desert to lush rainforest, high in the
treetops, beneath the ground. Whatever the environment, one of
the 8,000 squamate species on Earth calls it home. We share the
planet, but we often overlook these quiet neighbors. So welcome
to the world of squamates, and get ready to be surprised! This
cladogram maps evolutionary relationships among