THE CENTER FOR NORTH AMERICAN HERPETOLOGY
Loading taxon account
Retrieving account information and occurrence data...

Reptilia    Squamata (part-other lizards)    Teiidae  
Dusky Giant Ameiva
Ameiva praesignis (Baird and Girard, 1852)
AH-MEE-vah — pray-SIG-niss
Taxon Links
iNaturalist
The Reptile Database
Catalog of American Amphibians and Reptiles
NatureServe
GenBank
USGS Nonindigenous Aquatic Species Database

SSAR 9th Edition Comments:
 Native to Costa Rica south to Colombia and Venezuela. It was introduced prior to 1979 and is established at the Crandon Park Zoo on Key Biscayne, Miami-Dade County, Florida (Wilson and Porras, 1983, The Ecological Impact of Man on the South Florida Herpetofauna. University of Kansas Museum of Natural History, Special Publication 9: i–vi + 1–89; Krysko et al., 2010, Herpetological Conservation and Biology 5: 132–142; Krysko, 2019, Ameiva praesignis. Pages 427–428 in Krysko et al. (Editors) Amphibians and Reptiles of Florida. University Press of Florida, Gainesville, Florida). Earlier confusion about the taxonomy of these lizards (Wilson and Porras, 1983, op. cit.) has been resolved by Ugueto and Harvey (2011, Herpetological Monographs. 25: 113–170). (Krysko, Kenneth and Travis W. Taggart. 2025. Established Exotic Species. Pages 64-87 in Kirsten E. Nicholson (Editor), Scientific and Standard English Names of Amphibians and Reptiles of North America North of Mexico, with Comments Regarding Confidence in Our Understanding, 9th Edition. Society for the Study of Amphibians and Reptiles, Lawrence, Kansas. 87 pp.)

(,   Museum Voucher) (,   Observation) (,   Literature Record), (,   Citizen Science), (  Fossil)
Open icons indicate questionable records, including those with coordinate uncertainty greater than 10,000 m (approximately 6 miles). Click a marker to view metadata.
Occurrences:; 610 Total; 118 Museum; 492 Other

The locality database contains 8,094,832 records, and geographic and taxonomic errors exist. Logged-in, registered users may report a potential issue directly from the marker popup.
Shaded range maps are based on curated specimens and provided gratis by CNAH. (Version: 2025.03.29.21.40.41)
Download map data (GeoJSON):
Polygon Range File Museum Literature Fossil Personal Observation Citizen Science

Province/State Distribution:

Taxonomic Etymology:
A boldly marked ameiva species described as exceptional in appearance.
Ameiva — An indigenous (possibly Tupi or Cariban) word of uncertain origin used by early South American natives for similar lizards. Adopted by Linnaeus in his classification.
praesignis — From Latin praesignis, meaning “very notable,” “remarkable,” or “especially distinguished.” Likely refers to the vivid coloration and prominent size of the species.

First instance(s) of published English names:
Borriguerro Ameiva (Ameiva praesignis: Krysko, Kenneth L., Louis A. Somma, Dustin C. Smith, Christopher R. Gillette, Daniel Cueva, Joseph A. Wasilewski, Kevin A. Enge, Steve A. Johnson, Todd S. Campbell, Jake R. Edwards, Michael R. Rochford, Rhyan T. Thompkins, Jeffrey L. Fobb, Scott Mullin, Christopher J. Lechowicz, Dalla Hazelton, and Alicie Warren. 2016. New verified nonindigenous amphibians and reptiles in Florida through 2015, with a summary of over 152 years of introductions. Reptiles & Amphibians 23(2):110–143);


Selected References:
1852 Baird, Spencer F. and Charles Girad. Characteristics of some new reptiles in the Museum of the Smithsonian Institution, Second Part. Proceedings of the Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia 6:125-129

THE CENTER FOR NORTH AMERICAN HERPETOLOGY — Accessed: Thursday 01 October 2026 16:07 CT
Site concept, design, and programming: Travis W. Taggart (CNAH President/Executive Director).
CNAH usage since 31 August 2026: 206,396 human page views • 110,985 visitors • 108,657 file accesses