Phrynosoma Hernandesi: Meet the Lizard That Shoots Blood From Its Eyes!

Greetings and welcome to another post in my strange animals series. Usually, the animals I present are quite weird in the looks department, take for example the sea pig from yesterday’s post.

But today’s animal doesn’t look like anything special, just another regular lizard! But looks can be deceptive! This lizard actually has a super power that will blow out your mind!

Meet…

The Blood Squirting Short-horned Lizard

Pregnant female 

Scientifically described as Phrynosoma hernandesi, the short horned lizard comes by many common names, like the greater short-horned Lizard, horned toad and horny toad. But I am not here to talk about names.

Instead, I will show you what I think is the weirdest anti-predator mechanism mother nature has ever come up with. This creature actually shoots an aimed stream of blood from the corners of its eyes, for a distance of up to 1.5 m (5 feet)!

Shooting laser beams from your eyes is cool but shooting blood? That’s pure badassery! And in case you don’t believe me, here’s your proof, jump to 2:00 if you can't wait:

Now let’s learn more about this amazing creature and its blood-squirting ability!

How and why does it shoot blood from its eyes?!?!?!

The horned lizard has four lines of defense when it comes to predators. The first is camouflage. When it spots a potential threat, it will stay still blending with the environment. Hopefully, it will stay unnoticed.

If this fails, it will start running in short bursts and stop abruptly to confuse the predator's visual acuity.

If this fail too, they will puff up their bodies making them appear larger and spikier.  This both makes them appear more threatening but also more difficult to swallow, as they resemble a big spiky balloon! They will also hiss and point their horns forward.  Sounds effective, I would definitely not try to swallow a big spiky balloon that hisses at me!

And if this fails too… It’s time for the heavy artillery baby! It’s time to shoot some beams of blood!

To do that, they restrict the blood flow leaving the head which in turn increases blood pressure and consequently ruptures tiny vessels around the eyelid. This stream of blood  confuses and repels most predators,  as it is rich in chemicals that are especially foul to canine and feline animals. However, it appears to have little effect against predatory birds, other than the confusing factor.

Their aim is very good ,  accurately hitting targets (most of the time) in distances of up to a meter.

Is this the only lizard to shoot blood from its eyes?

Other than Phrynosoma hernandesi , there are eight recorded species of the genus  Phrynosoma known to shoot blood from the eyes: 

• P. asio 
• P. cornutum
• P. coronatum
• P. ditmarsi
• P. hernandesi
• P. orbiculare
• P. solare
• P. taurus

There are also three closely related species (P. mcallii, P. modestum, and P. platyrhinos) that are not capable of shooting blood.

Where do they live live?

If you want to see one by close you have to head to western North America. The species occurs in a wide range of habitats,  from southern Alberta and southern Saskatchewan south through eastern Montana, the western Dakotas, Wyoming, western Nebraska, Colorado, Utah, eastern Nevada, New Mexico, Arizona, and mountains of western Texas to southern Durango. [3]

It  is mostly an arid mountain dwelling species, living in the range of 9000-11,300 feet (170–3440 m). [1]

Close up photo

What do they eat? Do they have any enemies?

The Short-horned Lizard  is an insectivorous animal, with ants being the main prey.  Some other things it eats include beetles, caterpillars, grasshoppers, spiders and termites. They are not active hunters, they usually just wait for an insect to pass by.

As for enemies, it has plenty of them and that’s why the creature has evolved to have all these lines of defense mentioned before.  These enemies include coyotes, dogs, wolves, hawks, other larger lizards, roadrunners and snakes.

Is the species threatened?

As of today, the species is listed by the IUCN as of least concern, meaning there is no immediate danger of threat. Furthermore, it has a wide distribution with many populations residing in protected areas and no direct conservation measures are required.

Having said that, habitat loss and degradation (e.g., urbanization and intensive cultivation) have caused huge population declines in a few localized areas.

All in all, the species appears to have a bright future and it’s here to stay :)

So this is pretty much the basics I wanted to share about this unique creature. Below you will find some other quick facts that I think you might find interesting! I suggest you to visit the links in the references if you want to learn everything there is to know about the short horned lizard and its blood squirting abiliy!

Some Quick & Interesting Facts

• The species is often wrongly called  "horned toad" or "horny toad". Obviously, this is a mistake since they are reptiles and not..toads!
• The specific name, hernandesi, was given in honor of naturalist and court physician Francisco Hernández (1514–1587) who wrote an early account of a horned lizard, back in 1615.
• The species is often mistaken for the closely related Phrynosoma douglasii , known as pugmy short-horned lizard. The two look pretty much the same except the latter has small pointed scales around the head and back.
• Females are larger than males, with  females having an average length of 2.75 in. (7 cm)  from snout to vent and a weigh of about 18 g, whereas males have a  length of 2 in. (5 cm) and weigh about 10 g.
• Males reach sexual maturity at the age of 1 whereas females at the age of 2. The average lifespan of the species is about 5 years.

Finally, let me close this post with another video showing the blood squirting lizard in action. Jump to 1:15 if you are impatient :)

This is it for today, see you in tomorrow’s strange animal post. Stay tuned!:)

References & Further Reading

• Wikipedia: Horned Lizards
• Wikipedia: Greater Horned Lizard
• Blood-Squirting Variability in Horned Lizards (Phrynosoma)
• Eol: Phrynosoma hernandesi
• Plesiomorphic Escape Decisions in Cryptic Horned Lizards (Phrynosoma) Having Highly Derived Antipredatory Defenses
• Responses of Kit Foxes (Vulpes macrotis) to Antipredator Blood-Squirting and Blood of Texas Horned Lizards (Phrynosoma cornutum)

Photos

All photos are taken from wikicommons and released under the creative commons licence

SteemSTEM & Steemiteducation
Please consider supporting the @steemstem project. SteemSTEM is a community driven project which seeks to promote well written & informative Science Technology Engineering and Mathematics postings on Steemit. Click here to join the chat and learn more!  The steemstem project is run by @justtryme90, @lemouth and some other cool guys & gals :)You may also want to check, @steemiteducation, a project for steemian educators and people posting educative content  

More Strange Animals To Come
I will be posting one new strange animal each and every day so if you enjoyed this post make sure to follow me and let's discover together some of the world's most strange and bizarre creatures! An upvote and resteem would be nice too :P In the meantime, you may want to check out some other weird animals I have posted about, like the Giraffe-necked Weevil, the pokemon-like Mexican Mole Lizard and Ampulex compressa, the wasp that enslaves cockroaches with a sting to the brain!