Common Slowworm

Fascinating facts about the Common Slowworm

• The common slow worm is thought to be the longest-living lizard known, with individuals typically reaching about thirty years in the wild. Adults grow to roughly fifty centimetres in length, yet some can survive far longer under human care. A male kept at Copenhagen Zoo lived from 1892 until 1946, giving a confirmed captive lifespan of at least fifty-four years. This exceptional longevity sets the species apart from most other lizards.
• When a predator grasps a slow worm, it can detach its tail through caudal autotomy, allowing the animal to escape. The severed tail later regenerates only as a short stub rather than a full replacement. Researchers suggest this limited regrowth is sufficient because losing the tail does not seriously impair the slow worm's ability to move, hunt or defend itself. Consequently, the species does not need to invest heavily in rapid, complete tail regeneration.
• The common slow worm's ear openings are concealed beneath its overlapping-free scales, making them invisible to the eye. This hidden ear structure is paired with very small, functional eyes that can still move and close, unlike the fused lids of snakes. Because the ear pores are sealed by the smooth, round-to-hexagonal scales, the lizard relies more on its tongue-flicking and visual cues to detect predators and prey.
• Slow worms are ovoviviparous, giving birth to live young that break out of a thin, transparent egg shell the moment they are born. After a gestation of eleven to fourteen weeks, females usually produce eight to twelve offspring between mid-July and the end of August, though litter sizes can range from two to twenty-eight. The newborns are only seven to ten centimetres long and weigh less than a gram, emerging with a remnant yolk still attached.

Sources

Every fact above was checked against these pages, and kept only where one of them states it.

• Wikipedia

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