Horned lizard

Short Horn Toad Lizard ( Phrynosoma doug lassi )

Horned lizard ( Phrynosoma ) are a genus kurzschwänziger and short-legged lizards from the order of the iguana -like. They are characterized by horn-like, defense effective projections on head and back. Your German Name owe this strange lizards, toads, their similar body shape. Your body is 8 to 13 inches long. Horned lizard live in desert areas in Mexico and the southwestern United States. Their diet consists mainly of ants.

Way of life

Horned lizard are solitary and come together in nature almost exclusively for mating. The animals are diurnal and spend most of their time searching or lick up ants and other small prey. In their natural habitat, the animals buried in the rain or cool temperatures in the sand. When the sun shines, comes first the head of the horned lizard to the fore, the rest of the body remains covered with sand until the animals have reached their preferred temperature. This behavior offers them the opportunity to observe the surroundings in peace and to be there disguised optimal. The animals have warmed up, they go in search of food. During the lunch time, when it gets too hot, looking for the desert horned lizard the shadows of rocks and shrubs or bury themselves in the sand again.

Horned lizard exhibit morphological similarities to the native to Australia Thorny Devil. Other similarities affect some behaviors in defense and in the diet. Horned lizard, together with their Australian relatives an example of convergent evolution.

Defense

To defend against attackers of the horned toad are several resources available; the color is camouflage and corresponds approximately to the colors of their habitat. During an attack, the first reaction is the startle mortis. If the attacker is already too close, she lays back short sprints, followed by the abrupt Rigid - breaks in order to avoid a visual target for the attacker. If this fails, the lizard blows similar to a puffer fish. The animal may become uninteresting now larger and as food. Four subspecies have the possibility of Reflexblutens. This brings the lizard vessels at the edge of the eye to burst to distribute their blood within a radius of 1.5 meters. This type of defense works only against attackers which can be put off by the foul smell. It is used only as a last resort, as the blood levels reduced by about a quarter. In order to fight back against a picked over Kopf-/Nackenbereich, the horned toad ducks her head, so that the upright disposed at the top spines. To escape a fork up over the body, it presses it firmly against the ground or dig him a part.

Species

  • Phrynosoma asio Cope, 1864
  • Phrynosoma blainvillii Gray, 1839
  • Phrynosoma braconnieri Duméril & Bocourt, 1870
  • Phrynosoma cerroense Stejneger, 1893
  • Phrynosoma cornutum Harlan, 1825
  • Phrynosoma coronatum Blainville, 1835
  • Phrynosoma ditmarsi Stejneger, 1906
  • Shorthorn - Horned Lizard ( Phrynosoma doug lassi ) Bell, 1828
  • Phrynosoma goodei Stejneger, 1893
  • Phrynosoma hernandesi Girard, 1858
  • Phrynosoma mcallii Hallowell, 1852
  • Phrynosoma modestum Girard, 1852
  • Phrynosoma orbiculare Linnaeus, 1789
  • Desert Horned Lizard ( Phrynosoma platyrhinos ) Girard, 1852
  • Phrynosoma solar Gray, 1845
  • Phrynosoma taurus Duges, 1873
  • Phrynosoma wigginsi Montanucci, 2004
Squamata Phrynosomatidae Arend Friedrich August Wiegmann Camouflage (disambiguation) Apparent death Autohaemorrhaging John Edward Gray Marie Firmin Bocourt Leonhard Hess Stejneger Thomas Bell (zoologist)
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