Reptilia · Squamata
Basiliscus basiliscusLinnaeus, 1758
Common Basilisk
Photograph by Alan Rockefeller, CC BY, via iNaturalist
A day-active, omnivorous lizard from the Neotropic region, reaching 250 mm snout to vent.
Reptilia › Squamata › Corytophanidae › Basiliscus
- Grows to
- 250mm
- greatest recorded
- Eats
- Omnivorous
- Active
- Diurnal
- Lives up to
- 9years
What is known
43 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
- 2013
- Population trend
- Stable
The animal itself
- Limbs
- Four legs
- Venomous
- No
- Fangs
- None
- Longest recorded life
- 9years
- Body temperature when active · measured in the wild
- 27.75°C82 °F
- Body temp in the wild · mean, when active
- 26–29.5°C79–85 °F
Carey and Judge 2000: 3.3, Savage 2002: 7; Slavens and Slavens 1999: 5 and 4 months; ADW: 7 in the wild, 9 in captivity, Wikipedia: average 7 years in captivity, less in the wild, 4-6 (Henderson 2010), max 7 in nature (Leenders 2019)
mean body temperature of active individuals in nature
body temperature of active animals in nature
Size
- Length snout to vent · greatest recorded
- 250mm9.75 in
- Length snout to vent · adult female mean
- 160mm6.25 in
- Largest female · snout to vent
- 160mm6.25 in
- Hatchling length · snout to vent
- 40mm1.5 in
- Largest juvenile · snout to vent
- 40mm1.5 in
- Body mass · greatestcomputed
- 554g1.2 lb
- Body mass at hatchingmeasured
- 1.85g0.07 oz
van Devender 1978, Leenders 2019
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
- Semi-aquatic
- Habitat
- Forest, Wetlands
- Biome
- Tropical & Subtropical Moist Broadleaf Forests
- Active season · months of the year
- 12months
- Region
- Neotropic
- Mainland or island
- Mainland
- Highest it lives · above sea level
- 1400m
- Range size
- 432,691km²
- Density
- 200–400per hectare
Omnivorous, juveniles primarily insects (Savage 2002), "almost anything that moves and some things that do not" Van Devender 1983: invertebrates, lizards, fish, snakes, mammals and birds, and "some flowers and fruit" (Van Devender 1983), "fruits and flowers, small invertebrates, fish, lizards (young iguanas and ctenosaurs), snakes, and small birds. Juveniles eat insects and small fishes." (Henderson 2010), invertebrates, vertebrates, fruit, flowers and buds (Leenders 2019)
e.g., Mesquita et al. 2016
e.g., Henderson 2010
Semi Aquatic and Arboreal (e.g., van Devender 1978, Leenders 2019)/ Terrestrial (Dunham et al. 1988), sleeps underwater! (Barrio-Amoros 2020)
0-1400 (Cardona-Botero et al. 2013), near sea level to 1200 (Leenders 2019)
Breeding
- Reproduction
- Oviparous
- Average clutch
- 9.2eggs
- Eggs or young per clutch
- 2–20eggs
- Mean clutch
- 8.4–10eggs
- Clutches in a year
- 5.5per year
- Clutches a year
- 1–8per year
- First breeds at
- 10–20months
Pike et al. 2008: 8.5, mean 9.49 (Mesquita et al. 2016), 2-18 (Henderson 2010, Leenders 2019)
Naming and history
- Suborder
- Sauria
- Infraorder
- Pleurodonta
- Subspecies
- Basiliscus basiliscus basiliscus (LINNAEUS 1758) Basiliscus basiliscus barbouri RUTHVEN 1914
- Described by
- Linnaeus
- Moved to another genus · since it was first described
- Yes
- Described in
- 1758
- Type locality
- America australi
Keeping one
3 ft 3 in × 3 ft 3 in × 2 ft 1 in(100 × 100 × 63 cm)
Minimum length × width × height, for one animal. Bigger is always better.
The standard sizes ground-dwelling species at 4 × 4 × 2.5 times snout-vent length.
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 9.75 in (250 mm), at 4 × 4 × 2.5 times it, following the German federal welfare standard — how this is worked out.
Active animals measured in the wild averaged 82 °F (27.8 °C).
Mean body temperature of active individuals measured in nature. 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.
54kJ per day
Worked out for an animal of 554 g, the heaviest recorded for Common Basilisk — 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
- — Preferred body temperature · chosen in a laboratory gradient
- — 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
- — Sex decided by
- — Red List criteria
- — Home range · largest recorded
- — Active in
- — Lowest it lives · above sea level
Others in Corytophanidae
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). Basiliscus basiliscus. Retrieved 2026-09-08, from https://www.allanglescreatures.com/species/basiliscus-basiliscus
@misc{basiliscus_basiliscus_2026,
title = {Basiliscus basiliscus},
author = {{The Reptile & Amphibian Encyclopedia}},
year = {2026},
url = {https://www.allanglescreatures.com/species/basiliscus-basiliscus}
}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.