Brille

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The brille (also called the ocular scale, eye cap or spectacle) is the a layer of transparent, immovable disc-shaped skin or scale covering the eyes of some animals, which protects the eye, especially in animals without eyelids. The brille has evolved from a fusion of the upper and lower eyelids. Brille is German for "glasses".

Snakes, flap-footed lizards, night lizards, and some skinks have brilles. All geckos except those in the subfamily Eublepharinae (eyelid geckos) possess brilles.

Fish (except sharks) likewise have transparent eyelids called adipose eyelids.

[edit] See also

• Ocular scales.
• Snake scales.

[edit] References

• Keeping and Breeding Geckos, Hermann Seufer, 1991.