Currently five species of Acanthasaura are recognized from the Indochinese Peninsula and Malaysia. They tend to live in trees and on low vegetation. They are ovivparous, and carnivorous. An analyses of the cytochrome b sequences by Kalyabina-Hauf, et al. (2004, Current Herpeptology 23:7-16) recovered four lineages represented by A. armata, A. capra, A. crucigera, and A. lepidogaster. A fifth lineage was discovered in one specimen from Ngoc Linh, Vietnam that was considered to be A. lepidogaster. Acanthosaura crucigera consisted of two clades. One of these clades contains cysteine in a portion of its cytochrome b, and is the sister group of all other species of Acanthosaura. The second clade of A. crucigera formed the sister group of A. armata, A. capra, and A. lepidogaster. A clade containing A. armata, A. capra and the sample from Ngoc Linh, Vietnam was the sister group to A. lepidogaster. Subsequently Acanthosaura nataliae Orlov, Truong and Sang, 2006 was described from Vietnam and Laos. Ananjevwa et al. 2008 (Biology Bulletin 35:178-186) remove A. crucugera and armata from the fauna of Vietnam and recognize A. lepidogaster and A. coronata as the Vietnemese species. |
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| Horned Tree Lizard, ?Acanthosaurus armata. |
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| The Cross Bearing Tree Lizard, Acanthosaura crucigera (Above and Below) Boulenger, 1885. Photographed in Khao Luang National Park, southern Thailand. Recent molecular work suggests that this species as currently defined forms two monophyletic clades which may contain multiple species. Lizards in the photographs were found at night in forest vegetation. From Khao Luang National Park, southern Thailand. While they may hunt on the forest floor and feed on earthworms, they sleep off the ground in low vegetation. |
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