📸 PhotoPhoto: Miklos Schiberna · Public domain · Wikimedia Commons Source
Frilled Lizard
Chlamydosaurus kingii (Frilled Lizard · エリマキトカゲ)
💡 Everyday Comparisons for Size, Mass & Speed
- 💡 It gained huge popularity in Japan in the early 1980s after appearing in a car commercial, and is also depicted on the Australian 2-cent coin (benefit to humans noted by ADW).
- 💡 Its average length of 85 cm is just shy of three 30 cm rulers placed together (Comparison).
Reference standards: coach bus ~12 m, mid-size car ~4.9 m, compact car ~1 t, basketball hoop 3.05 m, credit card 8.56 cm.
📖 1. Overview
The Frilled Lizard is a large arboreal lizard living in grassy woodlands of Australia that abruptly flares a large pleated frill around its neck when startled.
🦴 2. Anatomy & Morphology
It averages 85 cm in length, with long limbs and a grey-brown body. The neck frill is a thin fold of skin that measures nearly 12 inches (about 30 cm) across when fully spread.
🔍 3. Ecology & Behavior
It spends 90% of its time in trees, descending to the ground to feed, and is an insectivore that mainly eats small invertebrates. When threatened, it runs on two legs to the nearest tree, and during the wet season it lays an average of 8 eggs (4–13) that incubate for about 70 days.
🇰🇷 4. Connection to Korea
No direct record connecting this species to Korea has been found.
📚 Sources & References
- • IUCN Red List LC (2017) — https://www.iucnredlist.org/species/170384/21644690
- • IUCN Red List category LC — latest assessment at iucnredlist.org
- • catalogueoflife.org — 69WST
- • iucnredlist.org — 21644690
- • wikidata.org — Q501566
- • commons.wikimedia.org — File:Chlamydosaurus kingii.jpg
- • animaldiversity.org — Chlamydosaurus kingii
- • Silhouette: PhyloPic — Jose Carlos Arenas-Monroy · CC0 1.0
Recorded dimensions are widely cited representative estimates from public literature and may vary by study or specimen.