Anguinae is a subfamily of

legless lizard Legless lizard may refer to any of several groups of lizards that have independently lost limbs or reduced them to the point of being of no use in locomotion.Pough ''et al.'' 1992. Herpetology: Third Edition. Pearson Prentice Hall:Pearson Education ...

s in the family Anguidae, commonly called glass lizards, glass snakes or slow worms. The first two names come from the fact their tails easily break or snap off. Members of Anguinae are native to North America, Europe, Asia, and North Africa.

Evolution

They first appeared in Europe during the early

Eocene The Eocene ( ) is a geological epoch (geology), epoch that lasted from about 56 to 33.9 million years ago (Ma). It is the second epoch of the Paleogene Period (geology), Period in the modern Cenozoic Era (geology), Era. The name ''Eocene'' comes ...

, approximately 48.6 million years ago, originating from North American ancestors that crossed over from Greenland via the Thule Land Bridge and spread toward Asia sometime after the drying of the Turgai Strait at the beginning of the

Oligocene The Oligocene ( ) is a geologic epoch (geology), epoch of the Paleogene Geologic time scale, Period that extends from about 33.9 million to 23 million years before the present ( to ). As with other older geologic periods, the rock beds that defin ...

, and then across the

Bering Land Bridge Beringia is defined today as the land and maritime area bounded on the west by the Lena River in Russia; on the east by the Mackenzie River in Canada; on the north by 72° north latitude in the Chukchi Sea; and on the south by the tip of the ...

to North America during the

Miocene The Miocene ( ) is the first epoch (geology), geological epoch of the Neogene Period and extends from about (Ma). The Miocene was named by Scottish geologist Charles Lyell; the name comes from the Greek words (', "less") and (', "new") and mea ...

Description

Very vestigial hindlegs are present in '' Hyalosaurus'' and '' Pseudopus'', but are entirely absent in the other

genera Genus (; : genera ) is a taxonomic rank above species and below family as used in the biological classification of living and fossil organisms as well as viruses. In binomial nomenclature, the genus name forms the first part of the binomial s ...

.Lavin, & Girman, D. J. (2019). Phylogenetic relationships and divergence dating in the Glass Lizards (Anguinae). Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution., 133, 128–140. Members of the group largely feed on insects and other invertebrates. The largest living species, the Sheltopusik (''Pseudopus apodus''), can reach lengths of .

Taxonomy

The subfamily contains the following genera: * '' Dopasia'' (7 species), native to eastern Asia * '' Hyalosaurus'' (1 species), native to North Africa * '' Ophisaurus'' (6 species), native to eastern North America * '' Pseudopus'' (1 extant species, the Sheltopusik), native to Europe and Asia * '' Anguis'' - slowworms (5 species), native to Europe and Western Asia Relationships after Lavin & Girman, 2019:

References

Anguids {{Anguidae-stub