Rough-nosed horned lizard, Kottawa, Sri Lanka

I went with a resident herpetologist to Kottawa forest reserve to find C. aspera and we were able to find this single female with eggs. It was perched on a tree root on by the forest floor.

comments (8)

Ferdy Christant

Lion

Hope you don't mind, I've asked John for his opinion on this one:

John Sullivan

There's no long snout. Could be a juvenile but I'd like to have it checked. To be clear, I really hope it is correct because it would be a very nice endemic find! Posted 4 years ago, modified 4 years ago
1. John Sullivan
  
  Lion
  
  It seems that adult females either have no rostral appendage, or a much reduced one. A paper on the reproductive behavior of this species (https://www.researchgate.net/publication/279206798_REPRODUCTIVE_BEHAVIOR_OF_THE_VULNERABLE_ROUGH_NOSE_HORNED_LIZARD_Ceratophora_aspera_SAURIA_AGAMIDAE_FROM_SRI_LANKA) shows a female laying eggs, and she has no noticeable rostral appendage. So the lack of that appendage doesn't rule out Ceratophora aspera, and I don't see anything else about this photo that seems significantly different from the female photographed in that paper.
  
  That said, there are a lot of roughly similar-looking agamid species in Sri Lanka, and I definitely do not know enough about them to make a confident ID. Posted 4 years ago
2. 1. Ferdy Christant
    
    Lion
    
    Thanks for chiming in, John. Since the ID is not ruled out and the local guide did confirm it as this species, I'd say it's safe to keep it as-is. Posted 4 years ago
3. ShanelleAW
  
  Lion
  
  Of course! Thank you both! I went to Kottawa to look for C. aspera with a resident herpetologist and he also ID-ed it as such. The Ceratophora's are actually quite distinct. C. aspera and karuii are similar, but even those two can be told apart since Karuii has patterns along its back. Posted 4 years ago
4. 1. Ferdy Christant
    
    Lion
    
    "I went to Kottawa to look for C. aspera with a resident herpetologist and he also ID-ed it as such."
    
    Thank you, I generally put a lot of confidence in local experts, so it would have been useful to provide this information in the description in the first place. Not only would it be useful to judge confidence in the ID, it would also be educational, as well as fun to see how you went about things.
    
    So don't be shy in the description, we'd very much like to learn how you found it, any behavior witnessed, how you came to an ID, etc. Hope you're willing to consider this for future posts. Posted 4 years ago
  2. 1. ShanelleAW
      
      Lion
      
      Apologies for not mentioning that earlier. I'll add a description on this one soon and I'll try to do it for future posts. I can attest to this guides credibility since he has been working with Sri Lankan herps for a while. Posted 4 years ago
    2. 1. Ferdy Christant
        
        Lion
        
        No need to apologize, it was just a suggestion. Thanks! Posted 4 years ago

John Sullivan

Lion

I recently returned from Sri Lanka and found all of the Ceratophora species *except* this one. I’ll upload some pictures soon! Posted 3 years ago

The Rough-nosed horned lizard

The rough-nosed horned lizard is an Agamid lizard from Sri Lanka in lowland dipterocarp forests and secondary forests in the wet zone. It is distinguished from all the other ''Ceratophora'' species by the presence of a complex rostral appendage, comprising more scales than rostral scale alone. The lateral body scales are small and more or less regular shape.

Info 1 0

Similar species: Scaled Reptiles

Species identified by ShanelleAW