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Reptilia    Squamata (part-other lizards)    Teiidae  

Gold Tegu
Tupinambis teguixin (Linnaeus, 1758)
too-PEE-nam-biss —

SSAR 9th Edition Comments:
 Native to Brazil, Paraguay, eastern Uruguay, and northern Argentina. It was introduced via the pet trade in 1990 in Seminole County, Florida but did not establish (Anonymous, 1990, The League of Florida Herpetological Societies Newsletter 1990: 24; Krysko et al., 2011, Zootaxa 3028: 1–64) and has since been found and established in many other areas in Florida (Krysko et al., 2011, op. cit.; Krysko et al., 2016, Reptiles & Amphibians 23: 110–143; Edwards et al., 2017, BioInvasions Records 6: 407–410; Edwards and Rochford, 2019, Tupinambis teguixin. Pages 437–438 in Krysko et al. (Editors) Amphibians and Reptiles of Florida. University Press of Florida, Gainesville, Florida). (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.)
Errata/Changes: Page 84: Add the following to end of the taxon comment. "Murphy et al. (2016, PLoS ONE 11: 1–30, e0158542) revised the T. teguixin group, recognizing four species from South America. Based on this revision, Pyron et al. (2019, BioInvasions Records 8: 465–470) identified three specimens collected in Miami-Dade County as Cryptic Golden Tegus (T. cryptus), likely originating from mainland Guyana or Venezuela."  — (6/11/2025)

Range maps are based on curated specimens and provided gratis by CNAH.
(Created by Travis W. Taggart; Version: 2024.04.15.13.43.53)
Download GeoJSON polygon range file: - 0.15 MB

Province/State Distribution:

Taxonomic Etymology:
Named after an Indigenous Brazilian tribe.
Tupinambis — Named for the Tupinambá, a Tupi-speaking Indigenous people of coastal Brazil. Early naturalists often used Indigenous names for South American fauna.
teguixin — A Latinized form of a native South American word (teguixí or teguixin) used by Indigenous peoples for these large lizards.

First instance(s) of published English names:
No historic English names have been assigned to this taxon yet.

Taxon Links:

  
Catalog of American Amphibians and Reptiles
  
The Reptile Database
  
NatureServe
  
iNaturalist
  
GenBank
  
USGS - Nonindigenous Aquatic Species Database

Selected References:
1758 Linné, Carl von (=Linneaus). Systema Naturae per regna tria naturae, secundum classes, ordines, genera, species cum characteribus, differentiis, synonymis, locis. [System of Nature through the three kingdoms of nature, according to classes, orders, genera, species with characters, differences, synonyms, places.] 10th Edition, Volume 1, L. Salvius, Stockholm. iv + 826pp.
2011 Krysko, Kenneth L., Joseph P. Burgess, Michael R. Rochford, Christopher R. Gillette, Daniel Cueva, Kevin M. Enge, Louis A. Somma, Jennifer L. Stabile, Dustin C. Smith, Joseph A. Wasilewski, Guy N. Kieckhefer III, Michael C. Granatosky & Stuart V. Nielsen. Verified non-indigenous amphibians and reptiles in Florida from 1863 through 2010: Outlining the invasion process and identifying invasion pathways and stages. Zootaxa 3028(1):1-64
2016 Murphy, John C.,Michael J. Jowers,Richard M. Lehtinen,Stevland P. Charles,Guarino R. Colli,Ayrton K. Peres Jr,Catriona R. Hendry, and R. Alexander Pyron. Cryptic, sympatric diversity in Tegu lizards of the Tupinambis teguixin group (Squamata, Sauria, Teiidae) and the description of three new species. PLoSONE 11(18):e0158542
2017 Edwards, Jake R., Jennifer K. Ketterlin, Michael R. Rochford, Rodney Irwin, Kenneth L. Krysko, James G. Duquesnel, Frank J. Mazzotti, and Robert N. Reed. The Gold Tegu, Tupinambis teguixin (Linnaeus, 1758) sensu lato (Squamata: Teiidae): evidence for an established population in Florida BioInvasions Records 6(4):407–410
2018 Jarnevich, Catherine S., Mark A. Hayes, Lee A. Fitzgerald, Amy A. Yackel Adams, Bryan G. Falk, Michelle A. M. Collier, Lea’ R. Bonewell, Page E. Klug, Sergio Naretto, and Robert N. Reed. Modeling the distributions of tegu lizards in native and potential invasive ranges. Science Reports 8(10193):
2018 Silva, Marcélia B., Marco A. Ribeiro-Júnior, Teresa C. S. Ávila-Pires A new species of Tupinambis Daudin, 1802 (Squamata: Teiidae) from central South America. Journal of Herpetology 52(1):94-110
2019 Pyron, R. Alexander, Robert N. Reed, Timothy J. Solston, and Michael R. Rochford. Morphology and molecular data reveal invasion of cryptic Golden Tegus (Tupinambis cryptus Murphy et al., 2016) in Florida. BioInvasions Records 8(2):465-470

THE CENTER FOR NORTH AMERICAN HERPETOLOGY — Accessed: Friday 05 December 2025 19:59 CT