Frilled-neck Lizard

Fascinating facts about the Frilled-neck Lizard

• At just under a meter long, the frilled lizard can stretch to 90 cm (35 in) from snout to tail tip and tip the scales at about 600 g (1.3 lb). When it throws its signature frill wide, the disc spans roughly 30 cm (12 in), over four times the width of its torso, turning a modest reptile into a startling, umbrella-like silhouette. This size-to-frill ratio lets the animal appear far larger than it is, buying precious seconds to startle predators or impress rivals.
• The frilled lizard lives almost entirely in the canopy, spending over 90 % of each daylight hour perched on trunks and branches. Though it rarely leaves the trees, it can sprint on two legs, a bipedal burst it uses when hunting or fleeing danger. By lifting its front body and aligning its head behind the tail base, it balances like a tightrope walker, turning vertical space into a rapid escape runway and keeping ground-bound predators at bay.
• Male frilled lizards are the marathon runners of the forest, covering an average of 69 m (75 yd) each day, while females only trek about 23 m (25 yd). Their territories also swell with the seasons: during the dry spell a male roams a 1.96 ha (4.8-acre) patch, expanding to 2.53 ha (6.3 acre) when rains arrive; females hold onto just 0.63-0.68 ha (1.6-1.7 acre).
• Genetic studies show the frilled lizard split from its nearest relatives roughly 10 million years ago, carving a distinct evolutionary path. About 17,000 years ago, a low-sea-level bridge let ancestors march into southern New Guinea, creating three shallowly separated lineages across Australia and the island. Today the species is listed as Least Concern by the IUCN, a status that reflects its broad distribution, though local declines.

Sources

Every fact above was checked against these pages, and kept only where one of them states it.

• Wikipedia

At a glance

About the Frilled-neck Lizard

As the frilled-neck lizard emerges from the dappled shade of the Australian forest, its extraordinary ruff, a delicate filigree of skin and cartilage, unfurls like a dark, lace-edged umbrella, a threatening display that belies the creature's essentially timid nature. With a swift, almost delicate gait, it moves through the underbrush, its long, claw-tipped toes barely touching the leaf-strewn earth as it searches for the insects and small reptiles that sustain it. In a flash of scaly, burnished gold, it freezes, one eye cocked warily towards the observer, its frill quivering with a mixture of fear and defiance.

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