---
title: "Eastern Mexican Spiny-Tailed Iguana"
description: "Ctenosaura acanthura — Reptielen. Ctenosaura acanthura, is a species of lizard in the family Iguanidae."
canonical: https://animalchecklist.com/nl/animal/eastern-mexican-spiny-tailed-iguana
last_updated: 2026-09-20
---

# Eastern Mexican Spiny-Tailed Iguana

> Ctenosaura acanthura — Reptielen. Ctenosaura acanthura, is a species of lizard in the family Iguanidae.

- Scientific name: *Ctenosaura acanthura*
- Category: `reptiles` (Reptielen)
- Habitats: unknown
- iNaturalist observations: 1536
- Wikidata: [Q2704844](https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q2704844)
- iNaturalist taxon: [35321](https://www.inaturalist.org/taxa/35321)

## Names

- en: Eastern Mexican Spiny-Tailed Iguana
- de: Ostmexikanischer Schwarzleguan
- es: Iguana de cola espinosa del Golfo

## Countries with the most observations

MX (1381)

## Summary

Ctenosaura acanthura, is a species of lizard in the family Iguanidae. The species is native to eastern Mexico and extreme western Guatemala. The standardized English name is the Mexican spiny-tailed iguana (Spanish: el garrobo del noreste). Confusingly however, an earlier edition of standardized names for Mexican herpetofauna called C. acanthura the northeastern spiny-tailed iguana and applied the name Mexican spiny-tailed iguana to Ctenosaura pectinata, which was called the western spiny-tailed iguana in the second edition.  It has also been referred to as the Veracruz spiny-tailed iguana and Gulf Coast spiny-tailed…

Text: Wikipedia (en), CC BY-SA 4.0 — https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ctenosaura_acanthura

## Photo

![Eastern Mexican Spiny-Tailed Iguana](https://animalchecklist.com/img/animals/eastern-mexican-spiny-tailed-iguana/medium.jpg)

Photo: Lynn Harper · CC0 · inaturalist — https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/320930745

## Machine access

`GET https://animalchecklist.com/api/v1/animals/eastern-mexican-spiny-tailed-iguana?lang=nl` — see [openapi.json](https://animalchecklist.com/openapi.json).