Texas Horned Lizard

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Texas Horned Lizard

One of the most interesting creatures near the place where I come from is the Texas horned lizard. The community around the area prefers to call the animal as the “horny toad”. The Texas horned lizard is a flat bodied and fierce-looking lizard. The interesting thing about this lizard is that it has horns all over its face. All the horns are prominent but with two central spines in the middle of the head that are more pronounced than the others are (Seymour & Royo, 1996). The lizard is brown in color and has two rows of fringed scales, which run on each side of its body. Most of the Texas horned lizards can be spotted with a light line, which extends from its head down the middle of its back. The lizard is the only species of the horned lizards that can be spotted with dark brown stripes, which can be seen radiating downwards from its eyes and across the top of its head (Heath, 2000).

The creature spends most if its time out in the sun heating up its body. This activity is synonymous with all living things that are cold blooded. Their diet mainly consists of harvester ants, which also tends to occupy most of their day. This is also summed up by chasing away predators. Although they are able to dig up their own burrows, they do not seem to mind occupying one that has been dug up by another animal. The creatures are known to have very unusual defense mechanisms. Whenever they feel danger, they usually flatten their bodies and jump into freeze mode. They have the ability of changing their skin tone as a form of camouflage. These creatures are active during the warm days of summer and early fall. When this period is over, they tend to hibernate around the months of September and October up until the month of May or June. Hibernation is a strategic way of conserving energy during the cold months. During this time, metabolism is lowered, as all physical movements are restricted. When they come out of hibernation, the lizards engage in mating after which they dig up a tunnel where the female lays up to thirteen to forty-five eggs (Donaldson, Price, & Morse, 1994).

After laying the eggs, the female horned lizard only sits on the eggs for one night and leaves in the morning to never return to the nest. The eggs then lie there for close to eight weeks after which the babies hatch their way out of the eggs. The age until which the young ones become sexually active still remains uncertain but it occurs by the time they reach three years of age. The scientific name given to this lizard is the Phrynosoma cornutum. The lizard mainly occupies the regions of Texas, Oklahoma, Kansas, New Mexico, Colorado, parts of Arizona and Mexico. Interestingly, the biome classification for this animal is the Desert, grasslands, prairies and scrublands. The animals collect water through the method of rain harvesting. They simply raise and flatten their bodies and dip in their heads to collect water. The water is collected by flowing through the channels formed by their scales (Bartlett, & Bartlett, 1999).

References

Bartlett, P., & Bartlett, R. (1999). A Field guide to Texas Reptiles and Amphibians. HoustonTexas: Gulf Publishing Company.

Donaldson, W., A. Price, J. Morse. (1994). The Current Status and Future Prospects of the Texas Horned Lizard (*Phrynosoma cornutum*) in Texas. The Texas Journal of Science, 46: 97-113.

Heath, J. (2000). Temperature Regulation and Diurnal Activity in Horned Lizards. Los Angeles: University of California Press.

Seymour, G. & Royo, R. (1996). “Desert USA” (On-line). Retrieved from http://www.desertusa.com/april96/du_hliz.html.