When the sun is shining directly on them, they will be lighter in color and don’t need to flatten out.
The next amazing adaptation is that the females are ovoviviparous. Does anyone know what that means? Well, for those of you scratching your heads right now, it means the female gives birth to live little lizards. Instead of burying their eggs in the ground as most lizards of this genus do, the female keeps the eggs inside her to incubate them. She does this because the temperatures in the high altitude are too cool and with all the rain, the eggs would perish in the ground. The female carries the eggs (usually 5-15 eggs) inside of her, regulating the temperature for four to six months, and then in November - December, she gives birth to fully formed little lizards. How cool is that? To quote Dr. Ian Malcom (from Jurassic Park), “Listen, if there’s one thing the history of evolution has taught us, it’s that life will not be contained. Life breaks free-it expands to new territories and crashes through barriers painfully, maybe even dangerously...I’m simply saying that life, uh, finds a way.” These lizards have indeed found a way to live in cooler high-altitude climates.
The Spiny Green Lizard is listed by the IUCN (International Union for Conservation of Nature) as of least concern, so that means their populations aren’t in any kind of danger. But, with deforestation and increased urbanization, these lizards could end up losing their habitat, and their numbers could decline. Luckily, in Costa Rica, they aren’t in danger of losing their habitat, and their populations will remain stable locally.
