Reptilia · Squamata
Anolis cristatellusDuméril & Bibron, 1837
Crested anole
Photograph by crowfoolery, CC BY, via iNaturalist
A day-active, omnivorous lizard from the Neotropic region, reaching 80 mm snout to vent.
Also called Common Puerto Rican anole, Puerto Rican Crested Anole.
Once published as Ctenonotus cristatellus — those names reach this page.
Reptilia › Squamata › Anolidae › Anolis
- Grows to
- 80mm
- greatest recorded
- Eats
- Omnivorous
- Active
- Diurnal
- Lives up to
- 6.9years
Longer than 74% of all species in Anolidae anyone has measured.
The bar is the rank itself: its length is the share of the family this animal exceeds. The chart below is the family’s real spread, on a logarithmic scale because body length here runs from 33.5 to 191 mm. The solid rule is this animal. Every bar is a count of real species, and nothing on this figure is estimated.
What is known
46 sourced facts, each taken from a named scientific dataset. How to read these.
Cited from a dataset unless a row is marked otherwise.
Standing in the world
- Still living
- Extant
- Conservation status
- Least Concern
- Status assessed · the year the Red List last looked
- 2015
- Population trend
- Stable
The animal itself
- Limbs
- Four legs
- Venomous
- No
- Fangs
- None
- Longest recorded life
- 6.9years
- Preferred body temperature · chosen in a laboratory gradientmeasured
- 29–29.8°C84–86 °F
- Body temperature when active · measured in the wild
- 28.35°C83 °F
- Body temp in the wild · mean, when active
- 23.3–33.4°C74–92 °F
Andrew Durso in "Anole Annals" (http://www.anoleannals.org/2013/06/27/fill-in-the-blank-obscure-anole-life-history-traits/): 83 months
mean body temperature of active individuals in nature
body temperature of active animals in nature
Size
- Length snout to vent · greatest recorded
- 80mm3.25 in
- Length snout to vent · adult female mean
- 50.9mm2 in
- Largest female · snout to vent
- 50.9mm2 in
- Hatchling length · snout to vent
- 22mm0.9 in
- Largest juvenile · snout to vent
- 22mm0.9 in
- Body mass · greatestcomputed
- 10.59g0.37 oz
- Body mass at hatchingmeasured
- 0.2g0.01 oz
Shai Meiri, unpublished
snout-vent length; the source column mixes this with straight carapace length
computed from length by a family-level allometric equation, not weighed
How it lives
- Diet
- Omnivorous
- How it hunts
- Sit and wait
- Active
- Diurnal
- Where it lives
- Arboreal, terrestrial
- Habitat
- Forest, Shrubland
- Biome
- Tropical & Subtropical Moist Broadleaf Forests
- Active season · months of the year
- 12months
- Region
- Neotropic
- Mainland or island
- Found only on islands
- Highest it lives · above sea level
- 1150m
- Range size
- 9147km²
- Density
- 262–10,210per hectare
- Home range · largest recorded
- 19m2
insects (Perry and Garland) / Omnivorous (Conant and Collins 1998), invertebrates and anoles (Lee 2000, Fitch 1989, Levins and Heatwole 1973) see also Losos 2009 p154, insects, also fruit and nectar (Daniells et al. 2008), insects and lizards (Heimes 2022), blind snake (Archilla 2009)
e.g., Daniells et al. 2008, Leenders 2019, Heimes 2022
Diurnal but may forage at night (Henderson and Powell 2009)
Arboreal (e.g., Winchell et al. 2016, Dmi'el et al. 1997, Heimes 2022), females and juveniles also forage on the grouns (Daniells et al. 2008), arboreal and terrestrial (Leenders 2019)
near sea level to 750 (Leenders 2019)
Breeding
- Reproduction
- Oviparous
- Sex decided by
- Genes, XX/XY
- Average clutch
- 1eggs
- Eggs or young per clutch
- 1–2eggs
- Mean clutch
- 1–1.13eggs
- Clutches in a year
- 16per year
- Clutches a year
- 16–18per year
- First breeds at
- 6.5months
1 (e.g., Henderson and Powell 2009), "A few females—especially open ones—contained two oviductal eggs… 5.0% of 576 in open vs. 1.9% of 374 in forest… At Monagas (the warmer site), relatively more gravid females in the open had two eggs than did forest females (13.3% of 430 vs. 4.1% of 242" (Otero te al. 2015)
Naming and history
- Suborder
- Sauria
- Infraorder
- Pleurodonta
- Subspecies
- Anolis cristatellus cristatellus DUMÉRIL & BIBRON 1837 Anolis cristatellus wileyae GRANT 1931
- Described by
- Duméril & Bibron
- Moved to another genus · since it was first described
- No
- Described in
- 1837
- Type locality
- Puerto Rico
Keeping one
12.5 in × 12.5 in × 12.5 in(32 × 32 × 32 cm)
Minimum length × width × height, for one animal. Bigger is always better.
The standard sizes ground species at 4 × 4 × 2.5 and climbing species at 4 × 2.5 × 4 times snout-vent length.
Recorded both on the ground and climbing, so this is the larger of the two rules in every dimension.
Mindestanforderungen an die Haltung von Reptilien (Sachverständigengutachten), German Federal Ministry for Nutrition, Agriculture and Forestry, Animal Welfare Division, 10 January 1997. The standard states these floor areas are recommendations rather than binding limits.
From this animal’s own snout-vent length of 3.25 in (80 mm), at 4 × 4 × 4 times it, following the German federal welfare standard — how this is worked out.
In a laboratory thermal gradient this species settled at 84–86 °F (29–29.8 °C).
Preferred body temperature, recorded in a laboratory gradient where the animal could choose freely. A measurement of the animal, not a setting for a thermostat.
Feeding
A prey item should be no wider than the space between the animal's eyes.
Widely used across reptile husbandry references. The stated reason is that the gap approximates the width of the throat, so wider prey is associated with impaction. This is established practice, not a measurement.
2kJ per day
Worked out for an animal of 11 g, the heaviest recorded for Crested anole — so it is the top of the range, not a figure for a particular animal. Weigh yours and the number will be lower.
An upper estimate, not a feeding target, and not veterinary advice. The equation covers only what an animal burns staying alive, so a growing, gravid or recovering animal needs more — and it was measured on wild animals, which move far more than one in an enclosure. Body condition and a vet who knows the species are what a feeding decision should rest on. Where this comes from.
What nobody knows
These are not gaps in our research. No scientific dataset records them for this species — and saying so is information you cannot get from a reference that simply leaves a field out.
- — Length snout to vent · adult male mean
- — Length snout to vent · adult mean
- — Length nose to tail · greatest recorded
- — Female length · mean, nose to tail
- — Length nose to tail · adult male mean
- — Length nose to tail · adult mean
- — Largest male · snout to vent
- — Largest female · shell length
- — Largest male · shell length
- — Hatchling length · nose to tail
- — Largest juvenile · shell length
- — Egg length
- — Egg width
- — Body mass · a typical adult
- — Body mass · adult female, mean
- — Eats arthropods
- — Eats vertebrates
- — Eats plant matter
- — How the young develop
- — Gestation or incubation
- — Hatchling length · smallest recorded
- — Hatchling length · largest recorded
- — Age at first breeding · female
- — Mature from · youngest recorded
- — Mature by · oldest recorded
- — Size at maturity · smallest recorded
- — Size at maturity · largest recorded
- — Colour on the back
- — Pattern on the back
- — Pupil
- — Red List criteria
- — Active in
- — Lowest it lives · above sea level
Others in Anolidae
Take this data
Everything on this page is available as data under CC BY 4.0 — use it freely, credit it, no permission needed.
This species as JSON · the whole dataset
Cite this page
The Reptile & Amphibian Encyclopedia (2026). Anolis cristatellus. Retrieved 2026-09-08, from https://www.allanglescreatures.com/species/anolis-cristatellus
@misc{anolis_cristatellus_2026,
title = {Anolis cristatellus},
author = {{The Reptile & Amphibian Encyclopedia}},
year = {2026},
url = {https://www.allanglescreatures.com/species/anolis-cristatellus}
}Sources
- Meiri, S. (2024). SquamBase — a database of squamate (Reptilia: Squamata) traits. Global Ecology and Biogeography. Public domain (CC0).
- Oskyrko, O. et al. (2024). ReptTraits: a comprehensive dataset of ecological traits in reptiles. Scientific Data. Used under CC BY 4.0.
- Catalogue of Life (dataset 3LR), used under CC BY.