Reptilia · Squamata
Leiocephalus carinatusGray, 1827
Saw-scaled Curlytail
Photograph by toad-wife, CC BY, via iNaturalist
A ground-dwelling, day-active, omnivorous lizard from the Neotropic region, reaching 133 mm snout to vent.
Also called Northern Curly-tailed Lizard.
Once published as Leiocephalus armouri, Leiocephalus virescens — those names reach this page.
Reptilia › Squamata › Leiocephalidae › Leiocephalus
- Grows to
- 133.2mm
- greatest recorded
- Eats
- Omnivorous
- Active
- Diurnal
- Lives up to
- 10.8years
Longer than 83% of all species in Leiocephalidae 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 53 to 200 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
38 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
- 10.8years
- Body temp in the wild · mean, when active
- 33.2–35.6°C92–96 °F
Carey and Judge 2000, De Magalhaes & Costa 2009, Slavens and Slavens 1999, Henderson & Powell 2009: 10 and 10 months (captivity)
body temperature of active animals in nature
Size
- Length snout to vent · greatest recorded
- 133.2mm5.25 in
- Length snout to vent · adult female mean
- 91.1mm3.5 in
- Hatchling length · snout to vent
- 34mm1.25 in
- Body mass · greatestcomputed
- 71.91g2.5 oz
- Body mass · a typical adult
- 30g1.1 oz
max 133.2 mm SVL (Feldman et al. 2016)
computed from length by a family-level allometric equation, not weighed
AnAge rates this record "acceptable"
How it lives
- Diet
- Omnivorous
- How it hunts
- Sit and wait
- Active
- Diurnal
- Where it lives
- Terrestrial
- Habitat
- Forest, Shrubland
- Biome
- Tropical & Subtropical Dry Broadleaf Forests
- Region
- Neotropic
- Mainland or island
- Found only on islands
- Highest it lives · above sea level
- 10m
- Range size
- 124,368km²
- Density · highest recorded
- 40,000per hectare
(anoles, Losos 2009), flowers (Kircher et al. 2014)
Mesquita et al. 2016
Terrestrial and Arboreal / Terrestrial, poor climber (Losos 2009) / terrestrial (Mesquita et al. 2016)
coastal (Lando and Williams 1969)
Breeding
- Reproduction
- Oviparous
- Sex decided by
- Genes, XX/XY
- Average clutch
- 4.05eggs
- Eggs or young per clutch
- 1–11eggs
- Mean clutch
- 4–4.1eggs
- Clutches a year
- 2per year
4 (Van Wilgen and Richardson 2012), mean 4.1 (Mesquita et al. 201)
Naming and history
- Suborder
- Sauria
- Infraorder
- Pleurodonta
- Subspecies
- Leiocephalus carinatus carinatus GRAY 1827 Leiocephalus carinatus aquarius SCHWARTZ & OGREN 1956 Leiocephalus carinatus armouri BARBOUR & SHREVE 1935 Leiocephalus carinatus cayensis SCHWARTZ 1959 Leiocephalus carinatus coryi SCHMIDT 1936 Leiocephalus carinatus granti RABB 1957 Leiocephalus carinatus hodsdoni SCHMIDT 1936 Leiocephalus carinatus labrossytus SCHWARTZ 1959 Leiocephalus carinatus microcyon SCHWARTZ 1959 Leiocephalus carinatus mogotensis SCHWARTZ 1959 Leiocephalus carinatus virescens STEJNEGER 1901 Leiocephalus carinatus zayasi SCHWARTZ 1959
- Described by
- Gray
- Moved to another genus · since it was first described
- No
- Described in
- 1827
- Type locality
- Cuba
Keeping one
21 in × 21 in × 13 in(53 × 53 × 33 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 5.25 in (133.2 mm), at 4 × 4 × 2.5 times it, following the German federal welfare standard — how this is worked out.
No preferred body temperature has been recorded for Saw-scaled Curlytail. 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.
9kJ per day
Worked out for an animal of 72 g, the heaviest recorded for Saw-scaled Curlytail — 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 female · snout to vent
- — Largest male · snout to vent
- — Largest female · shell length
- — Largest male · shell length
- — Hatchling length · nose to tail
- — Largest juvenile · snout to vent
- — Largest juvenile · shell length
- — Egg length
- — Egg width
- — Body mass · adult female, mean
- — Body mass at hatching
- — 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
- — Colour on the back
- — Pattern on the back
- — Pupil
- — Red List criteria
- — Active season · shortest recorded
- — Active season · longest recorded
- — Density · lowest recorded
- — Home range · largest recorded
- — Active in
- — Lowest it lives · above sea level
Others in Leiocephalidae
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). Leiocephalus carinatus. Retrieved 2026-09-08, from https://www.allanglescreatures.com/species/leiocephalus-carinatus
@misc{leiocephalus_carinatus_2026,
title = {Leiocephalus carinatus},
author = {{The Reptile & Amphibian Encyclopedia}},
year = {2026},
url = {https://www.allanglescreatures.com/species/leiocephalus-carinatus}
}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.
- AnAge, Human Ageing Genomic Resources (de Magalhães et al.), used under CC BY 3.0.