Texas Horned Lizard

The Texas Horned Lizard (Phrynosoma cornutum) is one of 14 North American species of spikey-bodied reptiles called horned lizards. P. cornutum ranges from Colorado and Kansas to northern Mexico, and from southeastern Arizona to Texas. There are also isolated, introduced populations in the Carolinas, Georgia, and northern Florida. Texas horned lizards may be native to Louisiana and Arkansas.
The horned lizard is popularly called a "horned toad," "horny toad," or "horned frog," but it is neither a toad nor a frog. The popular names come from the lizard's rounded body and blunt snout, which give it a decidedly toad-like or frog-like appearance. (Phrynosoma literally means "toad-bodied." Cornutum means "horned.") The lizard's horns are extensions of its cranium and are composed of true bone.
The Texas horned lizard is the largest-bodied and most widely distributed of 14 species in the western United States and Mexico. The length of an average Texas Horned Lizard is 69 mm (2.7 in) snout-vent length,[6] however the upper boundary for males is 94 mm (3.7 in) and for females it is 114 mm (4.5 in). Although its coloration generally serves as camouflage against predation, when threatened by a predator, a horned lizard will puff up its body to cause its spiny scales to protrude, making it difficult to swallow. The Texas horned lizard, along with at least three other species, also has the ability to squirt an aimed stream of blood from the corners of the eyes and sometimes from its mouth for a distance of up to 5 ft (1.5 m). This not only confuses would-be predators, the blood is mixed with a chemical that is foul-tasting to canine predators such as wolves, coyotes, and domestic dogs.