All Angles Creatures
Squamata · TropiduridaeEntry 20,767 of 21,572
Tropidurus jaguaribanus

Reptilia · Squamata

Tropidurus jaguaribanusPassos, Lima, Borges-Nojosa, 2011

Photograph by Henrique Nogueira, CC BY, via iNaturalist

A day-active, meat-eating lizard from the Neotropic region, reaching 103 mm snout to vent.

No English name has been recorded for this species.

ReptiliaSquamataTropiduridaeTropidurus

Grows to
103.4mm
greatest recorded
Eats
Carnivorous
Active
Diurnal
Lives
Saxicolous, terrestrial
Body length across Tropiduridae

Longer than 67% of all species in Tropiduridae anyone has measured.

67% of 147 species are smaller33% larger
57 mmthe whole family, smallest to largest177 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 57 to 177 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
Data Deficient
Status assessed · the year the Red List last looked
2013

The animal itself

Limbs
Four legs
Venomous
No
Fangs
None
Body temp in the wild · mean, when active
30.5°C

body temperature of active animals in nature

Size

Length snout to vent · greatest recorded
103.4mm4 in

max 103.41 mm SVL (Feldman et al. 2016)

Length snout to vent · adult female mean
72.3mm2.75 in
Largest female · snout to vent
79.6mm3.25 in

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

Hatchling length · snout to vent
25.5mm1 in
Largest juvenile · snout to vent
25.5mm1 in
Body mass · greatestcomputed
39.23g1.4 oz

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

Body mass at hatchingmeasured
0.7g0.02 oz

How it lives

Diet
Carnivorous

arthropods, mostly insects (details in Alcantara et al. 2018), arthropods (Uchoa et al. 2022)

How it hunts
Sit and wait

Alcantara et al. 2018

Active
Diurnal

e.g., Alcantara et al. 2018, Uchoa et al. 2022

Where it lives
Saxicolous, terrestrial

Saxicolous (e.g., Uchoa et al. 2022)/ saxicolous and terrestrial ("Forty-eight individuals were observed on rocky outcrops (44.86%), whereas the remaining individuals were on the open ground (39.24%), or in termite nests (6.54%) and leaf-litter (9.34%)." Alcantara et al. 2018)

Habitat
Rocky, Shrubland
Biome
Deserts & Xeric Shrublands
Region
Neotropic
Mainland or island
Mainland
Elevation · above sea level
50–590m

466 (De Oliveira et al. 2020), 51-582 (Uchoa et al. 2022)

Range size
4143km²

Breeding

Reproduction
Oviparous
Average clutch
1.72eggs
Eggs or young per clutch
1–2eggs

2 (Passos et al. 2013, Uchoa et al. 2022), 1-2 (Alcantara et al. 2018, mean 1.43)

Mean clutch
1.43–2eggs

Naming and history

Suborder
Sauria
Infraorder
Pleurodonta
Subspecies
No
Described by
Passos, Lima, Borges-Nojosa
Moved to another genus · since it was first described
No
Described in
2011
Type locality
Brazil

Keeping one

16.5 in × 16.5 in × 10 in(41 × 41 × 26 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.

Lives on rock, so stable hard surfaces and basking ledges suit it.

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 (103.4 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 Tropidurus jaguaribanus. 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.

5kJ per day

Worked out for an animal of 39 g, the heaviest recorded for Tropidurus jaguaribanus — 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
  • 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
  • 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
  • Population trend
  • 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 Tropiduridae

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). Tropidurus jaguaribanus. Retrieved 2026-09-08, from https://www.allanglescreatures.com/species/tropidurus-jaguaribanus

@misc{tropidurus_jaguaribanus_2026,
  title  = {Tropidurus jaguaribanus},
  author = {{The Reptile & Amphibian Encyclopedia}},
  year   = {2026},
  url    = {https://www.allanglescreatures.com/species/tropidurus-jaguaribanus}
}

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.