Reptilia · Squamata
Prosymna frontalisPeters, 1867
South-western African Shovel-snout
Photograph by Dylan Leonard, CC BY-SA, via iNaturalist
A ground-dwelling, nocturnal, meat-eating lizard from the Afrotropic region, reaching 440 mm nose to tail.
Reptilia › Squamata › Prosymnidae › Prosymna
- Grows to
- 440mm
- greatest recorded
- Eats
- Carnivorous
- Active
- Nocturnal
- Lives
- Terrestrial
What is known
29 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
- 2019
- Population trend
- Stable
The animal itself
- Limbs
- None
- Pupil
- Round
- Fangs
- At the back of the mouth
Size
- Length nose to tail · greatest recorded
- 440mm17.5 in
- Hatchling length · nose to tail
- 142mm5.5 in
- Body mass · greatestcomputed
- 25.38g0.9 oz
snakes only in this source
computed from length by a family-level allometric equation, not weighed
How it lives
- Diet
- Carnivorous
- Active
- Nocturnal
- Where it lives
- Terrestrial
- Habitat
- Desert, Savanna, Shrubland
- Biome
- Deserts & Xeric Shrublands
- Region
- Afrotropic
- Mainland or island
- Mainland
- Elevation · above sea level
- 110–827m
- Range size
- 655,457km²
reptile eggs (Marais 2022)
(Marais 2004; recorded by Anuj Shinde), nocturnal (Marais 2022)
Marais 2004, icon in Marais 2022
Breeding
- Reproduction
- Oviparous
- Average clutch
- 3
- Eggs or young per clutch
- 3eggs
Feldman et al. 2015
the single figure reported — Meiri, 2024, Glob. Ecol. Biogeogr., 33:e13812
3-6 (Chippaux and Jackson 2019, who write this for each species in the genus), 3 (Marais 2005), 3 (Marais 2022, n = 1)
Naming and history
- Suborder
- Serpentes
- Infraorder
- Alethinophidia
- Subspecies
- No
- Described by
- Peters
- Moved to another genus · since it was first described
- Yes
- Described in
- 1867
- Type locality
- Namibia
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.
3kJ per day
Worked out for an animal of 25 g, the heaviest recorded for South-western African Shovel-snout — 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 · greatest recorded
- — Length snout to vent · adult female mean
- — Length snout to vent · adult male mean
- — Length snout to vent · adult mean
- — 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
- — 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
- — 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
- — Venomous
- — Body temp in the wild · lowest mean recorded
- — Body temp in the wild · highest mean recorded
- — Colour on the back
- — Pattern on the back
- — Sex decided by
- — Red List criteria
- — Active season · shortest recorded
- — Active season · longest recorded
- — Density · lowest recorded
- — Density · highest recorded
- — Home range · largest recorded
- — Active in
Others in Prosymnidae
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). Prosymna frontalis. Retrieved 2026-09-08, from https://www.allanglescreatures.com/species/prosymna-frontalis
@misc{prosymna_frontalis_2026,
title = {Prosymna frontalis},
author = {{The Reptile & Amphibian Encyclopedia}},
year = {2026},
url = {https://www.allanglescreatures.com/species/prosymna-frontalis}
}Sources
- Meiri, S. (2024). SquamBase — a database of squamate (Reptilia: Squamata) traits. Global Ecology and Biogeography. Public domain (CC0).
- Moura, M. R. et al. TetrapodTraits: a database of 33,281 tetrapod species. Used under CC BY 4.0. Observed values only; this encyclopedia does not publish its imputed predictions.
- Catalogue of Life (dataset 3LR), used under CC BY.
- Oskyrko, O. et al. (2024). ReptTraits: a comprehensive dataset of ecological traits in reptiles. Scientific Data. Used under CC BY 4.0.