Mexican spiny-tailed iguana

Description

Ctenosaura acanthura, is a species of iguanid lizard found in eastern Mexico and extreme western Guatemala. The standardized English name is the Mexican spiny-tailed iguana (Spanish: garrobo del noreste). Confusingly however, an earlier edition of standardized names for Mexican herpetofauna called Ctenosaura acanthura the northeastern spinytailed iguana and applied the name Mexican spinytailed iguana to Ctenosaura pectinata, which was called the western spiny-tailed iguana in the second edition.  It has also been referred to as the Veracruz spiny-tailed iguana and Gulf Coast spiny-tailed iguana. It is an egg laying species that is mostly herbivorous, and a moderately large lizard commonly growing over one meter in total length. Mexican spiny-tailed iguanas have distinctive keeled scales on their long tails, which give them their common name.The males are capable of growing up to 1.4 meters (4 ft 7 in) in total length and females slightly shorter at 1 meter (3 ft 3 in). They have a crest of long spines which extends down the center of the back. Their base color is black with white or cream-colored markings. Ctenosaura acanthura is often confused with the closely related and similar appearing black iguana (Ctenosaura similis) however, Ctenosaura acanthura does not occur in the Mexican states of Tabasco, Campeche, Yucatan, Quintana Roo, or in Belize (Yucatan Peninsula). Scales of the tail whorls on Ctenosaura acanthura are very thorny (an angle of the keels over 30 degrees) and the crest of large spines on the back is interrupted in the pelvic area, forming a brake between the crest of large spines on the tail. On the black iguana (Ctenosaura similis) the crest of large spines on the back is uninterrupted and continuous with the large spines on the tail. Ctenosaura acanthura occurs in the lowlands on the eastern versant of Mexico throughout the Veracruz moist forests ecoregion and western portions of the Petén–Veracruz moist forests, from sea level up to ca. 1000 meters elevation. It is known from the Mexican state of Tamaulipas in the general vicinity of the Tropic of Cancer, southward throughout most of Veracruz, with a few records from lower elevation localities in adjacent areas of extreme eastern San Luis Potosi, Hidalgo, Pueblea, and Oaxaca. Southward, an apparently isolated population occurs in central Chiapas, in the Rio Grijalva valley, with a record extending the range into extreme western Guatemala.