The state of Texas placed the horned lizard on the threatened species list 20 years ago making it illegal to pick up, touch or possess the fading reptile. Researchers now have basic information about habitat characteristics and preferences, which can be used to develop recovery management plans. TPWD employees Melisa Montemayor and Chip Ruthven have been studying population dynamics and horned lizard movements for the past seven years. Texas horned lizards have been called horned toads or horned frogs, but they are, in fact, lizards. Toads and frogs are tailless amphibians that live in land or water.
Toads have rough, warty skin and frogs have smooth skin.
Horned lizards are reptiles with tails and a scaled body. There are currently 13 species of horned lizards, three of which are found in Texas. Adult Texas horned lizards range in length from three to five inches, excluding their tail. The largest on record measured at more than seven inches from the tip of its snout to the tip of its tail. Today, Texas horned lizards are found in the southeastern tip of Arizona and Colorado, southern and eastern New Mexico, most of Kansas and Texas and all of Oklahoma.