Blue Spiny Lizard Sceloporus serrifer/cyanogenys

This handsome lizard with its turquoise blue markings, dark collar and loosely overlapping scales that give it the name "spiny" is native to southern Texas, Mexico and northern Central America.

The male can also have a bright blue throat and belly. Shown is the cyanogenys subspecies from the northern part of the range.

Also called the Blue-chinned Rough-scaled Lizard, the subspecies S. serrifer cyanogenys immediately above, native to Texas and Mexico, is sometimes treated as a full species S. cyanogenys, but still called the Blue Spiny Lizard/Swift. It has been combined and separated several times by different authorities over recent years.

It is also called the Blue Fence Swift. They are related to iguanas. The male is more blue with sharper markings, particularly in the breeding season.

The female is browner. Unusually for lizards, she is ovoviviparous, which means that rather than laying eggs like most reptiles or giving birth to live young like some, the young develop inside eggs which remain inside the lizard until they hatch.