Appearance
The tail on this species is heavily armored with five rings of spines forming longitudinal ridges. Males of the species grow to a length of 35 centimeters whereas females attain 18.5 centimeters . Like most ''Ctenosaura'' the iguanas are born a bright green color fading to brown as the animal ages. The females tend to turn a uniform drab brown in color, and males develop tones of black, blue and yellow on their bodies and heads over the brown background.Naming
''Ctenosaura quinquecarinata'' was first described by zoologist John Edward Gray in 1842 as ''Cyclura quinquecarinata''; 32 years later it was redesignated by Marie Firmin Bocourt as ''Ctenosaura quinquecarinata''. The generic name, ''Ctenosaura'', is derived from two Greek words: ''ctenos'' , meaning "comb" , and ''saura'' , meaning "lizard". Its specific name ''quinquecarinata'' is a combination of two Latin words: ''quinque'' meaning "five" and ''carinata'' meaning "keeled" and refers to the five rows of scales on the animal's tail.Status
It is threatened in its native range by habitat loss.Habitat
Its natural habitat is subtropical or tropical dry forests.Predators
Total population size is not known, but it is estimated that there may be fewer than 2,500 mature individuals. It is threatened by habitat loss through deforestation, overcollection through an unregulated exploitation for the pet trade, and it is even hunted by humans as a food item.References:
Some text fragments are auto parsed from Wikipedia.
