Carphodactylidae

Now, while in skinks and the Cordylidae, being limbless or near limbless is the exception, not the rule, there are entire groups out there besides snakes that evolved to all be noodly, not just a few.

And this includes the Pygopodidae, a family of lizards who appeared some 15 million years after the demise of the dinosaurs during the early Eocene, having diverged from the Carphodactylidae.

And these guys are also still alive, who are, as some of you may know them, the southern padless geckos of Australia.

And these guys are so uncanny to snakes that they're often simply referred to as the snake lizards.

John, tell us all about it.

Well, to start out, leaf-tailed geckos in general belong to the family carphodactylid Carphodactylidae.

Wow, that's a mouthful.

[laughs]

... because we have some very similar body shapes around the world, but those would be in very different families.

Yeah, of course.

So Carphodactylidae is actually, all the members of it are endemic to Australia.

Yeah.