Question

Is it better to get a leopard gecko or a bearded dragon?

Answer 1

It's best to get a bearded dragon instead of a leopard gecko although both are good types of lizards.

You should get a bearded dragon instead of a leopard gecko especially for a kid as bearded dragons are easier to handle and are not as delicate as leopard geckos are.

Also bearded dragons are diurnal which means they are also awake during the day.

Leopard Geckos are better pets than a bearded dragon for older people who are away during the day.

The cons of having a leopard gecko are they could potentially make you sick, color morphs can be expensive, they are not as active as other reptiles and tail dropping.

Other cons of leopard geckos are they are not likely to seek out or return affection although they sometimes enjoy being held.

Things you should put in a Leopard Gecko tank are substrate, a heating device and places to hide and water and food dishes, a thermometer and hydrometer.

You should also put in tiles, reptile carpet or slates, stones, sand mats, excavator clay or you could use newspaper or paper towels.

You can house other reptiles with a leopard gecko such as small frogs and turtles and even female leopard geckos can be housed with other female leopard geckos but males and female leopard geckos should not cohabitate or be housed together.

Although you should not house large frogs or large toads or other types of lizards with a leopard gecko.

The best age to get a leopard gecko is when the child is at least 12 years old or older.

A leopard gecko could be left alone for at least a week if they have enough food and water although it's best to have someone check in on them if you're gonna be gone longer than a few days.

Leopard Geckos make very good pets as they are small and have very little care requirements which makes them easy to care for.

Also leopard geckos can be left alone for several days without worry and they are also quiet and don't smell or need lots of attention.

A leopard Gecko is not very expensive and most leopard geckos cost between $30.00 to $100.00 and at most pet stores they are usually no more than $50.00 for a leopard Gecko.

To keep a leopard gecko, you should budget for around 20 pounds (thirty dollars) a month, having spent an initial amount of between 200 and 300 pounds (three to five hundred dollars).

When keeping a leopard Gecko you should also allow for having to replace items whenever they get damaged or show signs of wear.

The friendliest lizard is the Bearded Dragon Lizard.

Other lizards that are the friendliest lizards are the Black and White Tegu Lizard and the Leopard Gecko Lizard.

The best lizard to handle is the bearded dragon and the Argentine Black and White Tegu Lizard.

The cheapest lizard to own is the Green Anoles lizard which are small and around 5 to 8 inches long adn also have a lifespan of around 3 to 6 years.

A Green Anoles lizard costs around $10.00 each and sometimes less.

The least maintenance lizard is the Leopard Gecko and the Bearded Dragon.

The easiest lizard to take care of is the Bearded Dragon Lizard and the Crested Gecko.

The best lizard for a pet is the Leopard Gecko and the Bearded Dragon.

Other good lizards as pets are Fat Tailed Gecko, Crested Gecko, Blue Tongued Skink and the Black and White Tegu.

The best pet lizard for a kid is the leopard Gecko.

Leopard Gecko lizards are best pet lizards for kids as they require basic care and are also amenable to handling although they are prone to bouts of speed and can easily runaway.

The smallest lizard as a pet is the Virgin Islands dwarf gecko.

The Virgin Islands dwarf sphaero, Virgin Gorda least gecko, or Virgin Islands dwarf gecko is a species of gecko and also one of the smallest terrestrial vertebrates.

It has only been found on three of the British Virgin Islands: Virgin Gorda, Tortola, and Moskito Island.

A Komodo Dragon is not the same as a monitor lizard although they are similar.

The smartest lizard is the monitor lizard.

Monitor lizards are lizards in the genus Varanus, the only extant genus in the family Varanidae.

They are native to Africa, Asia, and Oceania, and one species is also found in the Americas as an invasive species.

About 80 species of monitor lizards are recognized.

Monitor lizards will generally run away from people.

The monitor lizard does not prey on humans but will defend themselves if threatened.

Monitor lizards also can make an intimidating hissing noise and often lash with their tail to protect themselves.

Their claws and teeth can also inflict nasty injuries, which are prone to infection.

The common name Monitor is from the Latin verb 'monere' meaning 'to warn'.

This was given to these lizards because of their habit of standing up on their hind legs, as though they are monitoring their surroundings. So the scientific name simply means 'many-colored lizard'.

Monitor lizards can make an excellent pet for the right person, but they are a much different experience than owning a pet like a dog or a cat.

Keeping a monitor lizard takes patience, learning new skills, and adequately caring for them daily.

Young lizards that are well trained grow up to be gentle-tempered adults that enjoy being held.

Monitor lizards are also intelligent and engage with their owners in ways that remind you of dogs or cats.

Lizards are an extremely large and diverse group of highly successful reptiles found throughout much of the world, and as with chelonians and other reptiles, have evolved and developed intelligence and high cognitive abilities to be able to quickly and successfully upon hatching or birth.

A more controversial emotion in reptiles is the concept of pleasure, or even love.

Many feel that they have not developed this emotion, as it does not naturally benefit them.

However, most reptiles do seem to recognize people who frequently handle and feed them.

Answer 2

A bearded dragon is a squamata and a squamate as they are a type of lizard and any lizard type is a squamate.

Iguanas are a squamate as they are also a type of lizard which are also squamates.

Agamids and chamaeleons are also a squamate.

A Gecko is a Squamata and a Squamate.

There are 11,000 described extant species of Squamates.

The thing that makes a Squamata are the scales or shields rather than shells or secondary palates and the movable quadrate bones which is a flexible jaw structure.

Squamates include lizards, amphisbaenians, and snakes, and each of which have been historically placed in different evolutionary groups (suborders).

All squamates are not lizards although all squamates are reptiles which consist of lizards, snakes and worm lizards.

The lower classifications of squamates are skink, Eastern Collared Lizard, Basilisks, Common basillisk, Western alligator lizards, Frilled neck lizard, Chameleons, Iguanas, Komodo dragon and Monitor Lizard.

Squamates evolved around 173 million years ago during the Middle Jurassic period.

Squamates are found on every continent except Antarctica, and in the Indian and Pacific Oceans, and span many diverse ecologies and body forms, from limbless burrowers to arboreal gliders.

The oldest squamate is the Megachirella which is an extinct genus of lepidosaurs which lived around 240 million years ago during the Middle Triassic period.

An example of a Squamata are lizards and snakes.

Snakes and lizards are squamata animals.

Squamata are in the class of Reptiles which comprise of snakes, amphisbaenians and lizards.

The animals that make up the order of Squamata are snakes and lizards and worm lizards.

The common name for Squamata are reptiles or scaled reptiles that comprise all snakes and lizards.

The vast majority of squamata or squamates do have teeth which are relatively small and sometimes tricuspid teeth.

These teeth forms are associated with a variety of invertebrate prey types.

The largest squamate is the Reticulated python (Malayopython reticulatus).

The now-extinct mosasaurs reached lengths over 14 m (46 ft).

Squamates do lay eggs and most squamates such as worm lizards, snakes and lizards lay parchment shelled eggs and some gekkotan species which are a subgroup of lizards lay strongly calcified eggshells.

Squamates are cold blooded animals which means that they cannot produce their own heat through their own bodies and must rely on their surroundings to keep them warm.

Some interesting facts about Squamata are they are the only living reptile group that has both viviparous and ovoviviparous species, as well as the usual oviparous (egg-laying) reptiles.

They also does not include the Tuataras from New Zealand and are a sister group to the squamates.

The Crocodilia are much more distantly related.

Squamatas are also known to all possess and have movable quadrate bones which makes it possible for them to move their upper jaw relative to their braincase.

The percentage of known reptiles that are squamates is (96.3%) which is concentrated in squamates (59% lizards, 35% snakes, and 2% amphisbaenians).

Squamates evolved from Rhynchocephalia in the early Triassic.

A squamate traits are flexible jaw structures also known as movable quadrate bones squamates also have shields instead of secondary palates or shells.

Squamata are defined as being an order of reptiles that comprise of snakes, lizards and sometimes even extinct Pythonomorpha.

Some types of squamates do have legs and other squamates have no legs and some squamates have only front legs and some squamates only have back legs and some squamates have 4 legs.

Most squamata use a special organ on the roof of their mouths to smell and they use the organ to smell by first clicking or picking up chemicals on their tongue.

Most squamata also smell with their noses and taste with their tongues along with the organ on the roof of their mouths.

The families that are in order of Squamata include.   

Agamidae (Agamas)
Chamaeleonidae (Chameleons)
Iguanidae (Iguanas) - Includes many subfamilies / subspecies, such as anoles and collared lizards.
Gekkonidae (Geckoes)
Pygopodidae (Legless lizards)
Dibamidae (Blind lizards)
Cordylidae (Spinytail lizards)
Scinidae (Skins)

The sister group to squamates is the Rhynchocephalia (the Tuatara and extinct relatives) which share a common ancestor around 250 million years ago at the start of the Mesozoic.

Together, they form the monophyletic Lepidosauria.

Most squamates have a transparent and rigid structure called brille or spectacle over their eyes.

The thing that all squamates have in common are movable quadrate bones that make it possible for the squamates to move their upper jaw relative to their braincase.

The movable quadrate bones are most visible in snakes that are able to open their mouth very wide to accomodate large prey.

The lepidosauria is the ancestor of Squamata.

The Lepidosauria is a subclass or superorder of reptiles that contains the orders Squamata and Rhynchocephalia.

Squamatas includes snakes, lizards, and amphisbaenians. Squamata contains over 9,000 species, making it by far the most species-rich and diverse order of non-avian reptiles in the present day.

Iguanians were long thought to be the earliest crown group squamates based on morphological data, although genetic data suggest that geckoes are the earliest crown group squamates.

Iguanians are now united with snakes and anguimorphs in a clade called Toxicofera.

The earliest unambiguously identified squamate fossils date from the Middle and Late Jurassic (174–145 Ma), and among them are forms that can be assigned to major modern clades of squamates, including both lizards and snakes (Evans, 1998; Evans, 2003; Caldwell et al., 2015), but many are isolated jaws and skull bones

Squamata is the largest order of reptiles, comprising lizards, snakes, and amphisbaenians, which are collectively known as squamates or scaled reptiles. With over 10,900 species, it is also the second-largest order of extant vertebrates, after the perciform fish.

Class Reptilia includes many diverse species that are classified into four living clades.

Reptilia includes four living clades: Crocodilia (crocodiles and alligators), Sphenodontia (tuataras), Squamata (lizards and snakes), and Testudines (turtles).

There are more than 8,200 living species of reptiles, and they are placed in four orders: Crocodilia, which includes crocodiles and alligators; Sphenodontia, or tuataras; Squamata, which includes lizards and snakes; and Testudines, such as turtles and tortoises.

Gekkota (geckos and pygopods) constitute a diverse and early diverging clade of squamates, but their highly fragmentary fossil record allows only limited insights into their evolutionary history.