Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Just wondering if this was normal. I don't remember ever seing hornes like this on a green iguana. The pic was taken of a wild one in Costa Rica.

it's normal.
just a guess, but maybe iguanas in captivity dont have horns quite as obvious as those b/c they have a tedincy to rub their nose on walls, bookshelves, cages, etc.

horns on the nose is normal depending on native locale. Some places iguanas grow them some places not. It is still officially the same species but that may change. You see them, the ones with nose spines, in the pet trade. They can and do rub off in captivity but that is a care issue. Sometimes they grow back and sometimes no. They dont all have them or start out with them. The nose spined iguanas were called rhino...somethin'. I forget, but it was a pet trade name to sell a different kind of iguana. All the same species, for now.

I believe it is a rhino iguana, he is so absolutly cool! I thought my iguana was going to get horns, but nah........ he's just normal, but I love him anyway! heres a pic

Its not a rhino iguana. This is still a Green Iguana. The rhino iguanas are a defferent species. Look around the Cyclura & Ctenosaura forum. Thats where the Rhino, Cuban, Spiney tail iguanas are. (There may be more, Im not too knowledgeable about them.)

Here is a picture:

My iguana Tiny is growing some spikes on his nose. I will try and get a good picture of his snout soon.
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Healthy and fat Igg(Tiny)

Healthy and FINALY shedding Mali Uro(Buddy)

a rhino iguana is usually the common name for Cyclura cornuta. What i was trying to remember is a latin name used a while ago and then abandoned in the scientific community. I will think of it. The nose spines are cool but it is a normal iguana, yours is pretty impressive, no spines needed!

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You are partially correct. The picture is rhinolopha, but it is a subspecies: Iguana iguana rhinolopha and that is not currently in scientific debate, at least it is yet to be seriously contested currently by anyone of note. The debates are only currently in the pet trade, where they are actually (wrongly) occasionally referred to as "Rhino Iguanas," whose common name belongs to Cyclura cornuta. I think the proper common name is just Central American Green Iguana, as opposed to Iguana iguana iguana, the South American Iguana.

Cheers,

Michael

As someone else mentioned, it simply depends on where they are from. Some have them, some don't... My iguana does: