Newbie greater earless lizard (Cophosaurus texanus), on a red sandtone perch, at V-Bar-V Heritage Site in Yavapai County, Arizona.
This fellow was tiny, only about two inches (5 cm) long, excluding its beautiful banded tail. The bottom photo provides a good view of this lizard’s parietal or “third” eye, in the large central scale at the base of its head. Reptiles’ parietal eyes are photoreceptive, but don’t process light in the same manner as the rods and cones in the imaging eyes. Instead, the structure sends direct signals to the lizard’s pineal gland, which controls circadian rhythms and the chemistry of thermoregulation.
Dithyramb 