Reptilia · Squamata
Ctenosaura oaxacanaKöhler & Hasbun, 2001
Oaxaca Spiny-tailed Iguana
Photograph by Carlos Domínguez-Rodríguez, CC BY, via iNaturalist
A tree-dwelling, day-active, plant-eating lizard from the Neotropic region, reaching 170 mm snout to vent.
Reptilia › Squamata › Iguanidae › Ctenosaura
- Grows to
- 170mm
- greatest recorded
- Eats
- Herbivorous
- Active
- Diurnal
- Lives
- Arboreal
Longer than only 9% of all iguanas 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 129 to 750 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
33 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
- Critically Endangered
- Status assessed · the year the Red List last looked
- 2004
- Population trend
- Decreasing
- Red List criteria
- B1ab(iii,v)
The animal itself
- Limbs
- Four legs
- Venomous
- No
- Fangs
- None
- Preferred body temperature · chosen in a laboratory gradientmeasured
- 35.2–37.5°C95–100 °F
- Body temp in the wild · mean, when active
- 30.6–32.6°C87–91 °F
body temperature of active animals in nature
Size
- Length snout to vent · greatest recorded
- 170mm6.75 in
- Body mass · greatestcomputed
- 214.2g7.6 oz
- Body mass · adult female, meanmeasured
- 31.6g1.1 oz
max 170 mm (Kohler and Hasbun 2001, Heimes 2022)
computed from length by a family-level allometric equation, not weighed
How it lives
- Diet
- Herbivorous
- Active
- Diurnal
- Where it lives
- Arboreal
- Habitat
- Forest
- Biome
- Tropical & Subtropical Dry Broadleaf Forests
- Region
- Neotropic
- Mainland or island
- Mainland
- Highest it lives · above sea level
- 980m
- Range size
- 15,192km²
- Density
- 3.75–33.8per hectare
mainly young leaves and insects (Kohler and Hasbun 2001, Heimes 2022)
mainly arboreal (Kohler and Hasbun 2001, Heimes 2022, Rioja et al. 2012)
0-250 (Kohler and Hasbun 2001, Rioja et al. 2012), near sea levl to 980 (Heimes 2022), 0-800 (Corneil 2018)
Breeding
- Reproduction
- Oviparous
- Average clutch
- 5.5eggs
- Eggs or young per clutch
- 5eggs
Kohler and Hasbun 2001
(Heimes 2022, n = 1), also Langner et al. 2022
Naming and history
- Suborder
- Sauria
- Infraorder
- Pleurodonta
- Subspecies
- No
- Described by
- Köhler & Hasbun
- Moved to another genus · since it was first described
- No
- Described in
- 2001
- Type locality
- Mexico
Keeping one
Oaxaca Spiny-tailed Iguana is assessed as Critically Endangered on the IUCN Red List. Species at risk in the wild are often covered by CITES and by national law, which decide what may be bought, sold, moved across a border or kept at all — and captive-bred and wild-caught animals are usually treated differently. Check the rules where you are before acquiring one. Nothing below is a judgement about keeping this species; it is what a published welfare standard says about space, and what the animal itself was measured doing.
2 ft 3 in × 16.5 in × 2 ft 3 in(68 × 43 × 68 cm)
Minimum length × width × height, for one animal. Bigger is always better.
The standard sizes climbing species at 4 × 2.5 × 4 times snout-vent length.
Lives in vegetation, so height and climbing structure matter more than floor space.
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 6.75 in (170 mm), at 4 × 2.5 × 4 times it, following the German federal welfare standard — how this is worked out.
In a laboratory thermal gradient this species settled at 95–100 °F (35.2–37.5 °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
Prey size does not apply. A herbivore's diet is judged on fibre, on the ratio of calcium to phosphorus, and on avoiding plants high in oxalates.
The animal does not take prey items. This is established practice, not a measurement.
23kJ per day
Worked out for an animal of 214 g, the heaviest recorded for Oaxaca Spiny-tailed Iguana — 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 at hatching
- — Longest recorded life
- — 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
- — 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
- — Colour on the back
- — Pattern on the back
- — Pupil
- — Sex decided by
- — Active season · shortest recorded
- — Active season · longest recorded
- — Home range · largest recorded
- — Active in
- — Lowest it lives · above sea level
Others in Iguanidae
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). Ctenosaura oaxacana. Retrieved 2026-09-08, from https://www.allanglescreatures.com/species/ctenosaura-oaxacana
@misc{ctenosaura_oaxacana_2026,
title = {Ctenosaura oaxacana},
author = {{The Reptile & Amphibian Encyclopedia}},
year = {2026},
url = {https://www.allanglescreatures.com/species/ctenosaura-oaxacana}
}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.