Mole-Limbed Wormlizards: Bipedidae

Mole-limbed wormlizards are like many other underground-living, or fossorial (foss-OR-ee-ul), animals in that their diet is something of a mystery. Scientists have not watched them feed but have occasionally caught them and looked at what was in their stomachs. From these scraps of partially digested food, they have learned that the mole-limbed wormlizards will eat ants, termites, grubs, and other invertebrates (in-VER-teh-brehts), which are animals without backbones. These species find their food underground or beneath logs, rotting leaves, and other things that cover the ground by following chemicals trails that the invertebrates leave behind. Mole-limbed wormlizards pick up these chemicals with the tongue. The tongue then places the chemical odors on a little opening, or duct, on the roof of the mouth that connects to a special organ. This organ, called a Jacobson's organ, helps them smell the chemicals.