Serrated Casquehead Iguana

Fascinating facts about the Serrated Casquehead Iguana

• It calls home in eleven Mexican states and three Central American countries. The species is found in the Mexican states of Campeche, Chiapas, Hidalgo, Oaxaca, Puebla, Querétaro, Quintana Roo, San Luis Potosí, Tamaulipas, Veracruz, and Yucatán, and also in the countries of Belize, Guatemala, and Honduras.
• It laid its first scientific description on paper in the mid-1860s, a time when explorers were still cataloguing the jungles of Central America. Laemanctus serratus alticoronatus Cope, 1866 and Laemanctus serratus serratus Cope, 1864. Those early dates show that the species has been known to science for over 150 years.
• It sports a head shield edged with tiny, saw-like scales, a feature that looks like a tiny crown of teeth. Laemanctus serratus has enlarged triangular scales along the posterior margin of the head casque, and a serrated middorsal crest.
• First described in 1864, the nominate form of this iguana carries a name that has survived more than a century and a half of taxonomic debate. Edward Cope introduced Laemanctus serratus in his 1864 paper, and two years later added the alticoronatus variant in 1866, cementing the species' split into two recognized subspecies. Those dates anchor the lizard's scientific story, reminding us that even long-known creatures can hide hidden diversity awaiting modern study.

Sources

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

• Wikipedia

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Serrated Casquehead Iguana photographed on Feravox

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