Albert Taylor, age 12, of Staten Island, New York, for his question:

What exactly is a zonure?

Andy's readers delve into the most unexpected places and into the most unusual topics. Today's question, for example, must have been provoked by an investigation into some interesting field far from the scene of our everyday lives. Andy had no idea what a zonure is but words beginning with "z" always have a special appeal, perhaps because they are rarities. Further investigation revealed that a zonure also is a rarity, rare and also remote.

The word Zonuidae belongs to the zoologists. It is the scientific name for a smallish family of lizards. Its rare members dwell in Madagascar and remote parts of Africa. Zonurus is a genus of the family found in tropical Africa and a few scattered areas of South Africa. The modest zonue lizards have toothy little jaws and small, rather feeble tongues that can be poked in and out to grab passing mor¬sels of food. The zonures are somewhat remarkable because bony plates of tooth material extend from their hands.