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Juvenile Black Spiny-tailed Iguana

Ctenosaura similis

Description:

A juvenile black spiny-tailed iguana spotted in the Rincón de la Vieja National Park, Costa Rica, on the way to La Cangreja waterfall. Green patterned body, no dorsal spines, brownish banded-tail. About 50 cm long including tail.

Habitat:

Dry forest, near water.

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7 Comments

DanielePralong
DanielePralong 12 years ago

Thanks for your comment Rivu!

rivu.ghorai
rivu.ghorai 12 years ago

very bright color and it contrasted with the background wonderfully..

DanielePralong
DanielePralong 12 years ago

Thanks for the extra info Carolina! While the mature individuals are quite distinct it's the juveniles that pose problems. I found the following bit of info:
http://www.backyardnature.net/yucatan/ig...
"It's easy to confuse immature Black and Green Iguanas. Both are green and both bear black bands on the body and tail... [ ]The fold of skin hanging beneath the Green Iguana's throat runs lengthwise while the Black Iguana's runs across the body". Not sure I can see that on my pics :-)

Carolina
Carolina 12 years ago

Well I don't know about a specific criteria, but I distinguish green iguanas from black tailed, because of it colors and also because green iguanas have a big circular scale under their tympanum.
http://www.projectnoah.org/spottings/556... But I could be wrong!
And if yours is a Black spiny-tailed, it was about to become a juvenile, because they are more like greyish when juvenile :)

DanielePralong
DanielePralong 12 years ago

Thank you Carolina! Indeed the body pattern and banding look very similar to that of the juvenile pic of Ctenosaura similis in the Wikipedia article. I'll change the ID. Do you know by any chance of specific criteria to identify/distinguish these juvenile iguanas?

Carolina
Carolina 12 years ago

It looks more like a young Black spiny-tailed iguana to me (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ctenosaura_...)

DanielePralong
DanielePralong 12 years ago

This is a re-posting from yesterday as something went wrong with the original post as I edited for ID. Thank you alicelongmartin for the suggestion!

DanielePralong
Spotted by
DanielePralong

Guanacaste, Costa Rica

Spotted on Jan 22, 2008
Submitted on May 16, 2011

Spotted for Mission

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