February 6th, 2010
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For a better understanding and another opinion of the relationship between what layman call “Iguana delicatissima” and “rhinolopha,” read James D. Lazell Jr., 1973, “The Lizard Genus Iguana in the Lesser Antilles,” Bulletin of the Museum of Comparative Zoology, Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts, Volume 145, Number 1. Lazell is satisfied that there are two species, I iguana and I. delicatissima, and further that “rhinolopha” is not a valid species but rather that some iguanas just happen to have horn-like scales on their snouts. Dr. Lazell goes on in this 28-page illustrated dissertation to describe not only the structural features of these animals but also their natural history, and he makes an important point for pet keepers by remarking that he has seen wild iguanas eating birds’ eggs and carrion, but never papaya or citrus fruits.
The name iguana according to the eleventh edition of the Encyclopedia Britannica is derived from the Spanish equivalent of the Carib Indian name for these lizards, iwana. This name – iguana – was applied in 1825 to a fossil of a giant extinct herbivorous reptile, the Iguanodon. The Iguanodon, an extinct contemporary of the dinosaurs, and its modern namesake have in common a peculiar form of tooth, being round at the root and blade-like with serrated edges toward the tip. The teeth are described as pleurodont – that is, they are fastened to the inner surface rather than the top edge of the lower jaw.
This business of systematically classifying iguanas gets sticky, and with the aim of clarifying the issue you might want to refer to the informal arrangement in the next chapter. Bear in mind that this chapter is primarily about the true iguana, Iguana iguana, and in passing we will make reference to the dozen or so typical iguanas.
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Tags: Cambridge Massachusetts, Citrus Fruits, Eleventh Edition, Encyclopedia Britannica, Genus Iguana, Harvard University Cambridge, Herbivorous Reptile, Iguanodon, Informal Arrangement, Inner Surface, James D Lazell, Lesser Antilles, Lizard Genus, Lower Jaw, Museum Of Comparative Zoology, Place In The Sun, Serrated Edges, Snouts, Spanish Equivalent, Valid Species
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February 3rd, 2010
The common green iguana is one species within one genus of a family of lizards found mostly in the New World. This green iguana and the other typical iguanas are tropical and semi-tropical and active during daylight hours (diurnal). Their eyes have round pupils and well developed lids. Their tongues are short, thick and only slightly notched, as contrasted to the long forked tongue of, for instance, the monitor lizards. It lays eggs, in common with most other iguanids (oviparous). Only a few give birth to living young (viviparous). They are frequently but not always brightly colored; they often have spines, frills or crests, and many can distend their throats. They can alter their color somewhat, some species more than others. Some may favor trees (arboreal) and others favor the land (terrestrial). Two are from the Galapagos Islands, and one of these is semi-marine, eats seaweed and would probably rather die than climb a tree.
For a beginning herpetologist or hobbyist pet keeper, the best iguana is the common green iguana – scientifically: Iguana iguana iguana. If you don’t go out of your way when you choose a pet in a pet shop, this is what you probably will get. Good. The only other iguanas that resemble it are Iguana iguana delicatissima which lacks the circular shields found below the eardrums of Iguana iguana iguana, and Iguana iguana rhinolopha which has a slight protuberance at the snout. So there you have it – genus Iguana, species iguana, and subspecies perhaps iguana or delicatissima or rhinolopha.
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Tags: Auto Financing, Common Green Iguana, Crests, Daylight Hours, Eardrums, Forked Tongue, Galapagos Islands, Genus Iguana, Green Iguana, Herpetologist, Lids, Lizards, Monitor Lizards, Pet Shop, Place In The Sun, Protuberance, Pupils, Seaweed, Snout, Subspecies, Viviparous
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January 29th, 2010
Not all mites are found on the exposed skin of your reptile pet. Some species get into the nostrils, others get into the trachea and lungs. This is a job for your veterinarian. Others lodge themselves near the sometimes moist area near the cloaca and around the base of the tail. This you can clear up by drying and disinfecting the cage.
Occasionally a recently imported iguana is found which is free of mites and ticks but is still wasting away, although eating well. This animal may be suffering from pin worms or other internal parasitic worms. His cloaca will be loaded with them and your veterinarian will be able to find them in the feces in the same way he examines dogs and cats. He may be able to treat your pet successfully. The problem is usually that the pet owner doesn’t recognize that there is a problem until the specimen is on the threshold of death.
If you wish to avoid problems like this, start with a bright eyed healthy animal and keep him clean and isolated from other animals which may be infested with parasites.
Your pet may not wear down his toenails as fast as they continue to grow. If you notice that they are twisting under or corkscrewing, you might do well to prune them a little. Go at it slowly until you find how far to clip without striking living tissue – the part of the nail nearest the toe is actually alive and is supplied with veins, arteries and nerves.
You should use a tool which cuts the nail but does not splinter it by crushing. For a young iguana, perhaps an ordinary fingernail clipper will suffice. Larger lizards will need the tool which is used for dogs. Perhaps you can buy one in your pet shop. You should not ever strike the “quick,” but if you do, you can stop the flow of blood with a styptic pencil – this is just alum and is available in your drugstore or from nearly any man who shaves with a razor. As with any minor wound, it can be treated with an antiseptic cream, but it will probably heal uneventfully regardless of whether you treat it or not.
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Tags: Alum, Antiseptic Cream, Arteries, Cloaca, Dogs And Cats, Feces, Fingernail, Lizards, Mites, Moist Area, Nostrils, Parasitic Worms, Pet Owner, Pet Shop, Pin Worms, Reptile Pet, Styptic Pencil, Toenails, Trachea, Veterinarian
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January 26th, 2010
The powder with a warm bath and several rinses and clean the cage thoroughly before reintroducing the specimen.
These two insect killers should be available through your pet dealer or veterinarian. A mixture of half-and-half castor oil and 90% grain alcohol brushed on the affected areas may also eliminate mites. Don’t dip your pet in this mixture; just apply a little locally. Note that 90% grain alcohol is not 90 proof. You can buy 90% grain neutral spirits in your pharmacy or liquor store. A little goes a long way.
If you pick off ticks and chiggers with the tweezers, you might well follow up with an alcohol swab to help reduce the risk of infection at the sore spot. Perhaps a pretreatment with the alcohol will tend to loosen the tick before you attempt to pick it off. This passage is not intended to scare anyone from keeping an iguana. People have had dogs and cats with chiggers, ticks, mites and fleas for all of the recorded history.
A number of large and small ticks attached under the edges of the scales of a rainbow boa. The ticks found on iguanas are usually similar in appearance to those found on snakes – ticks are not too choosy.
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Tags: Auto Financing, Castor Oil, Chiggers, Dogs And Cats, Fleas, Grain Alcohol, Iguanas, Insect Killers, Liquor Store, Mites, Mixture, Neutral Spirits, Pet Dealer, Pretreatment, Rainbow Boa, Scales, Snakes, Specimen, Ticks, Tweezers, Veterinarian, Winnipeg
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January 23rd, 2010
The Galapagos land Iguana, Conolophus subcristatus, is frequently seen in zoos but rarely in private collections. It is protected by law.
It weighs twenty-two pounds. There is a subspecies, A.c. venustissimus, found only on Hood Island. It is only 30 inches maximum length and brightly colored, but nevertheless is valueless as a captive pet.
CONOLOPHUS – One species, the Galapagos land iguana, Conolophus subcristatus. It is a vegetarian, eating shoots, bark, flowers, fruits, cactus pads and grasshoppers. With a row of spines down the back, this is a powerful looking lizard; however, it is easy to tame. It needs warmth – say 80 to 90 degrees F. It is surely used to salty food and may actually relish it. Four feet long.
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Tags: Auto Financing, Cactus Pads, Flowers, Four Feet, Fruits, Galapagos, Grasshoppers, Iguana, Land Iguana, lizard, Looking Lizard, Maximum Length, Private Collections, Spines, Subspecies, Two Pounds, Warmth, Winnipeg, Zoos
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January 20th, 2010
Close up of a mature Galapagos land iguana. Notice especially the bumpy scales on the head and the spines at the back of the neck.
IGUANA – The primary subject of this book. Depending on whose classification – and when it was written – there is one species or two and perhaps even three subspecies. For purposes of this book there is one species with three subspecies all having identical natural history and only slight differences in appearance.
IGUANA IGUANA IGUANA – Common green iguana, tuberculated iguana, common iguana, Chinese dragon and, in Central America, gallina de pallo - chicken.
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Tags: Appearance, Auto Financing, Central America, Chinese Dragon, Common Green Iguana, Dragon, Galapagos, Gallina, Green Iguana, Iguana, Iguana Iguana, Mature, Natural History, Pallo, Scales, Spines, Subspecies, Winnipeg
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January 16th, 2010
The uncommon Brazilian club-tailed iguana, Hoplocercus spinosus, somewhat resembles Enyaliosaurus but has a shorter tail.
HOPLOCERCUS SPINOSUS – Club-tailed iguana. A brazilian species, terrestrial, and an eater of grubs, termites and meal worms. Difficult to maintain in captivity.
DIPSOSAURUS DORSALIS – Desert iguana, crested lizard, northern crested lizard. Southwestern U.S. and northern Mexico. Eighteen inches. Eats flowers of cactus and other desert plants. Base color is light cream with dark maroon markings. Gentle. Reported to eat dandelions, geranium flowers and lettuce. Needs desert heat and light.
DIPSOSAURUS CARMENENSIS – Carmen Island crested lizard, Carmen Island, Gulf of California. Mentioned for the record only.
DIPSOSAURUS CATALINENSIS – Santa Catalina Island crested lizard, Santa Catalina Island, Gulf of California. Mentioned for the record only.
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January 8th, 2010
BRACHYLOPHUS FASCIATUS – A “typical” but not “true” iguana. The Fiji Island iguana, handsome, rare, three feet, vegetarian.
CTENOSAURA HEMILOPHA – Common spiny-tail iguana. Central Mexico to U.S. border. Three feet. Grey black with a short spiny tail. Spends more time on the ground than the common green iguana and requires more animal food. Robust and dangerous. This species was formerly called Ctenosaura conspicuosa, the banded spiny-tail iguana.
CTENOSAURA ACANTHURA – Black iguana. Mexico and Central America. Can run on two feet. More terrestrial than arboreal. Young specimens are uniformly bright emerald green. This is a spiny-tailed iguana and may in fact by the very same species as Ctenosaura hemilopha.
CTENOSAURA MULTISPINIS – Black spiny-tail iguana. Mexico. Probably the very same as C. acanthura but described by another scholar.
ENYALIOSAURUS -Two species from Mexico. Uncommon in the per trade.
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Tags: Animal Food, Auto Financing, Black Iguana, Black Tail, Central America, Central Mexico, Common Green Iguana, Emerald Green, Fiji Island, Green Iguana, Iguana, Scholar, Specimens, Spiny Tailed Iguana, Three Feet, Two Feet, Winnipeg
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January 5th, 2010
From the time of Aristotle through Linnaeus and even more recently, the classes of animal life were described as warm-blooded or cold-blooded. Unfortunately for describers of animal life who like to simplify, there is no absolute black and no absolute white in nature. All life is full of shades of gray. Mammals that hibernate do so with body temperatures much lower than their normal operating temperature. This goes for the bear and the woodchuck and doubtless many others.
Among reptiles the temperature regulation is managed by their behavior. A cool snake will bask in the sun or partially bury itself in warm sand. An overheated lizard will seek shade or a burrow. Perhaps additional study will show that when the Indian python incubates her eggs she is actually providing some temperature regulation as well. If thermo-regulation is necessary for reptile health (and this does seem to be the case), and this regulation is behavioral, then the pet keeper is duty bound to provide the environment in which his pet can behave to suit his temperature requirements. Nothing profound about that, but it is up to you to furnish a heat source with basking areas at various distances from it and also a shadow area where your pet can escape if the heat gets to be too much. All this can easily fit into a cage. Mount a light at the top, then several shelves or branches at various distances and then perhaps you will discover that the shadows created under the shelves provide the cool escape areas as well. Just make sure that what you erect is rugged and stable. A light that falls down and traps or burns your pet is your fault. Don’t blame the stupid iguana.
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Tags: Animal Life, Aristotle, Auto Financing, Body Temperatures, Burrow, Describers, Distances, Heat Source, Indian Python, Light At The Top, Linnaeus, lizard, Mammals, Shades, Shadow Area, Shelves, Temperature Regulation, Temperature Requirements, Thermo, Warm Sand, Winnipeg, Woodchuck
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December 29th, 2009
Until recently, the success of the dinosaurs over the rhynchosaurs, dicynodonts and cynodonts was explained by a competitive model. It was assumed that the erect gait of the dinosaurs, and other supposed advantages, allowed them to vanquish other Triassic animals and drive them to extinction.
There was a major crisis about 225 million years ago, some five million years after the origin of the first small dinosaurs. Numerous groups of animals died out in the sea and on land, as a result of a great climatic change or some other catastrophe. There is evidence that plants underwent major evolutionary upheavals about this time, and the rhynchosaurs and dicynodonts may have died out when they lost their essential plant foods. Whatever the cause, there was a mass extinction 225 million years ago. A mass extinction is the disappearance of a broad cross-section of plant and animal groups in a relatively short time. A dozen or more reptile groups died out then, including several significant ones such as the rhynchosaurs, dicynodonts, aetosaurs, and various carnivorous cynodont and ‘thecodontian’ groups. This left a large number of gaps in the ecology and possible lifestyles of terrestrial plants and animals, giving great opportunities for the surviving groups to take over and fill the gaps. The rare early dinosaurs, never more than one or two percent of their communities before the mass extinction, blossomed to represent 50 percent or more within a few million years.
This model for the origin of the dinosaurs – their opportunistic radiation into ‘empty ecospace’ is very different from the old competitive model. There is no long-term battle, in which whole groups are pitted against each other globally. The dinosaurs were lucky to be around at the right time, and they seized the opportunity. Competitive advantage no doubt played a part, however. The small Lagosuchus-like dinosaurs had an effective erect gait, with all of its advantages, and they were agile carnivores able to hunt a variety of prey. Just as the mammals replaced the dinosaurs opportunistically after the latter’s extinction, some 160 million years later, so the dinosaurs probably owed 95 percent of their success to being in the right place at the right time, and five percent to their natural competitive attributes.
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Tags: Animal Groups, Carnivores, Climatic Change, Competitive Advantage, Cross Section, Cynodont, Cynodonts, Dinosaurs, Disappearance, Five Million Years, Gait, Groups Of Animals, Mass Extinction, No Doubt, Plants And Animals, Reptile Groups, Right Time, Terrestrial Plants, Triassic Animals, Upheavals
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