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Squamata · LeiosauridaeEntry 7,678 of 21,572
Jackson's Fathead Anole, Enyalius perditus

Reptilia · Squamata

Enyalius perditusJackson, 1978

Jackson's Fathead Anole

Photograph by Reinaldo Oliveira Elias, CC BY, via Wikimedia Commons

A day-active, omnivorous lizard from the Neotropic region, reaching 100 mm snout to vent.

ReptiliaSquamataLeiosauridaeEnyalius

Grows to
100.2mm
greatest recorded
Eats
Omnivorous
Active
Diurnal
Lives
Arboreal, terrestrial
Body length across Leiosauridae

Longer than only 37% of all species in Leiosauridae anyone has measured.

37% of 35 species are smaller63% larger
73 mmthe whole family, smallest to largest124 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 73 to 124 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

35 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
2014

The animal itself

Limbs
Four legs
Venomous
No
Fangs
None

Size

Length snout to vent · greatest recorded
100.2mm4 in

Shai Meiri, unpublished

Length snout to vent · adult female mean
79.3mm3 in
Largest female · snout to vent
79.3mm3 in

snout-vent length; the source column mixes this with straight carapace length

Hatchling length · snout to vent
29.52mm1.25 in
Largest juvenile · snout to vent
29.5mm1.25 in
Body mass · greatestcomputed
30.55g1.1 oz

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

How it lives

Diet
Omnivorous

Arthropods, 6.5% plants (Sturaro and da Silva 2010), invertebrates (Barreto-Lima et al. 2013), arthropods (Barreto-Lima and Sousa 2011, Lucas et al. 2018), arthropods (mostly ants and termites) and plants (Barreto-Lima 2009), arthropods (Maia-Carneiro et al. 2016; 4.5% plants)

How it hunts
Mixed

mixed: cruising forager (Barreto-Lima et al. 2013, Rautenberg and Laps 2010), sit and wait (Migliore et al. 2017)

Active
Diurnal

Barreto-Lima et al. 2013

Where it lives
Arboreal, terrestrial

Arboreal& Terrestrial (da Silva 2010, Maia-Carneiro et al. 2016), terrestrial (Barreto-Lima et al. 2013)

Habitat
Forest
Biome
Tropical & Subtropical Moist Broadleaf Forests
Active season · months of the year
12months
Region
Neotropic
Mainland or island
Mainland
Elevation · above sea level
730m
Range size
450,100km²

Breeding

Reproduction
Oviparous
Average clutch
8.65eggs
Eggs or young per clutch
3–14eggs

7-14, Sturaro and da Silva 2010, 3-11, mean 7.1 ± 2.4 (Migliore et al. 2014)

Mean clutch
7.1–10.2eggs
Clutches a year
1per year

Naming and history

Suborder
Sauria
Infraorder
Pleurodonta
Subspecies
No
Described by
Jackson
Moved to another genus · since it was first described
No
Described in
1978
Type locality
Brazil

Keeping one

16 in × 16 in × 16 in(40 × 40 × 40 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 4 in (100.2 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 Jackson's Fathead 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.

4kJ per day

Worked out for an animal of 31 g, the heaviest recorded for Jackson's Fathead 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
  • 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 the young develop
  • Gestation or incubation
  • Clutches in a year
  • 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
  • Population trend
  • Red List criteria
  • Density · lowest recorded
  • Density · highest recorded
  • Home range · largest recorded
  • Active in

Others in Leiosauridae

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). Enyalius perditus. Retrieved 2026-09-08, from https://www.allanglescreatures.com/species/enyalius-perditus

@misc{enyalius_perditus_2026,
  title  = {Enyalius perditus},
  author = {{The Reptile & Amphibian Encyclopedia}},
  year   = {2026},
  url    = {https://www.allanglescreatures.com/species/enyalius-perditus}
}

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.