Texas horned lizard
Phrynosoma cornutum
— Where the name comes from
Phrynosoma is “toad body”, from phrŷnos and sôma: flat, squat and broad, it looks nothing like a lizard, and in English it is indeed called the horned toad. Cornutum refers to the crown of bony spines on the nape, each of which is a true extension of the skull.
— Facts
- Group
- Reptiles · Reptilia
- Order
- Squamates
- Habitat
- Arid grassland, sandy deserts, stony ground
- Range
- The south-central United States and northern Mexico
- Size
- 7–13 cm, 25–90 g
- Diet
- Harvester ants, almost exclusively
- Lifespan
- 8 years
— Characteristics
- 01
It flattens against the ground and vanishes into the sand.
- 02
It eats up to two thousand ants a day, one at a time.
- 03
Between its scales run channels that collect dew and carry it to the mouth.
— What sets it apart
If the spines are not enough, it shoots blood from its eyes. By raising the pressure in the sinuses of the head it bursts small capillaries at the corners of the lids and projects a jet as far as a metre and a half; that blood contains a substance canids find disgusting, and foxes and coyotes hit by it shake their heads and leave. On birds of prey, its other predators, it has no effect at all — and against those the lizard uses nothing but stillness.
