Marty’s photo of the day #4962:
Annie: “Now, I want you to breathe through your eyelids.”
Nuke: “My eyelids?”
Annie: “Yeah, like the lava lizards of the Galapagos Islands. See, there are some lizards that have a parietal eye behind their heads so they can see backwards. Haven’t you ever noticed how Fernando Valenzuela, he just doesn’t even look when he pitches? He’s a Mayan Indian. Or an Aztec, I get them confused.”
The above dialog is from Bull Durham, one of my all-time favorite movies. The lava lizards of the Galapagos Islands can’t really breathe through their eyelids, yet huge numbers of people think so, based on Annie’s quote.
This is an Española lava lizard, photographed two weeks ago in the Galapagos Islands. It was most definitely breathing like a proper lizard.