All Angles Creatures
Squamata · AnolidaeEntry 1,526 of 21,572
Pouched Anole, Anolis marsupialis

Reptilia · Squamata

Anolis marsupialisTaylor, 1956

Pouched Anole

Photograph placed in the public domain, CC0, via iNaturalist

A day-active, meat-eating lizard from the Neotropic region, reaching 48 mm snout to vent.

ReptiliaSquamataAnolidaeAnolis

Grows to
48.4mm
greatest recorded
Eats
Carnivorous
Active
Diurnal
Lives
Arboreal, terrestrial
Body length across Anolidae

Longer than only 14% of all species in Anolidae anyone has measured.

14% of 423 species are smaller86% larger
33.5 mmthe whole family, smallest to largest191 mm

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

24 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

The animal itself

Limbs
Four legs
Venomous
No
Fangs
None

Size

Length snout to vent · greatest recorded
48.4mm2 in

max 48.4 mm SVL (Feldman et al. 2016)

Body mass · greatestcomputed
2.41g0.09 oz

computed from length by a family-level allometric equation, not weighed

How it lives

Diet
Carnivorous

small invertebrates (Leenders 2019)

Active
Diurnal

Kohler et al. 2015, Leenders 2019

Where it lives
Arboreal, terrestrial

"leaf litter and on low perches up to 50 cm above the ground", Kohler et al. 2015, similar description in Leenders 2019

Biome
Tropical & Subtropical Moist Broadleaf Forests
Active season · months of the year
12months
Region
Neotropic
Mainland or island
Mainland
Elevation · above sea level
350–1200m

350-1200 (Leenders 2019)

Range size
681km²

Breeding

Reproduction
Oviparous
Average clutch
1.5eggs

Naming and history

Suborder
Sauria
Infraorder
Pleurodonta
Subspecies
No
Described by
Taylor
Moved to another genus · since it was first described
No
Described in
1956
Type locality
Costa Rica

Keeping one

7.75 in × 7.75 in × 7.75 in(19 × 19 × 19 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 2 in (48.4 mm), at 4 × 4 × 4 times it, following the German federal welfare standard — how this is worked out.

No preferred body temperature has been recorded for Pouched Anole. Rather than repeat a number from a care sheet, this page leaves it out.

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.

0kJ per day

Worked out for an animal of 2 g, the heaviest recorded for Pouched 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 female mean
  • 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 female · snout to vent
  • Largest male · snout to vent
  • Largest female · shell length
  • Largest male · shell length
  • Hatchling length · snout to vent
  • Hatchling length · nose to tail
  • Largest juvenile · snout to vent
  • Largest juvenile · shell length
  • Egg length
  • Egg width
  • Body mass · a typical adult
  • Body mass · adult female, mean
  • Body mass at hatching
  • Longest recorded life
  • Preferred body temperature · chosen in a laboratory gradient
  • Body temperature when active · measured in the wild
  • Eats arthropods
  • Eats vertebrates
  • Eats plant matter
  • How it hunts
  • How the young develop
  • Gestation or incubation
  • Smallest clutch recorded
  • Largest clutch recorded
  • Mean clutch · smallest reported
  • Mean clutch · largest reported
  • Clutches in a year
  • Clutches a year · fewest
  • Clutches a year · most
  • First breeds from · youngest recorded
  • First breeds by · oldest recorded
  • 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
  • Body temp in the wild · lowest mean recorded
  • Body temp in the wild · highest mean recorded
  • Colour on the back
  • Pattern on the back
  • Pupil
  • Sex decided by
  • Conservation status
  • Status assessed · the year the Red List last looked
  • Population trend
  • Red List criteria
  • Density · lowest recorded
  • Density · highest recorded
  • Home range · largest recorded
  • Habitat
  • Active in

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 marsupialis. Retrieved 2026-09-08, from https://www.allanglescreatures.com/species/anolis-marsupialis

@misc{anolis_marsupialis_2026,
  title  = {Anolis marsupialis},
  author = {{The Reptile & Amphibian Encyclopedia}},
  year   = {2026},
  url    = {https://www.allanglescreatures.com/species/anolis-marsupialis}
}

Sources

  1. Meiri, S. (2024). SquamBase — a database of squamate (Reptilia: Squamata) traits. Global Ecology and Biogeography. Public domain (CC0).
  2. Oskyrko, O. et al. (2024). ReptTraits: a comprehensive dataset of ecological traits in reptiles. Scientific Data. Used under CC BY 4.0.
  3. Catalogue of Life (dataset 3LR), used under CC BY.