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NATURAL HISTORY · CATALOGUE RECORD

Black Tegu

Tupinambis teguixin (Linnaeus, 1758)

Source-backed taxonomic record

Accepted species in Catalogue of Life’s 11 September 2026 base release. This preserves the source classification and available supporting data; it is not a completed species monograph.

Tupinambis teguixin DT [N Yuralpa] (3)

Tupinambis teguixin DT [N Yuralpa] (3)

Diego Tirira from Quito, Ecuador · CC BY-SA 2.0 · Image source

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Open encyclopedia reference

The gold tegu (Tupinambis teguixin), also known as the golden tegu, common tegu, black tegu, Colombian black and white tegu and tiger lizard or "matte" (in Trinidad), is a species of tegu.

Wikipedia contributors, Gold tegu; see linked history · CC BY-SA 4.0 . Plain-text lead excerpt, at most 180 words; no infobox or later sections Retrieved 2026-10-05T02:05:18.864707+00:00. This reference remains separate from the taxonomic record.

Identity & source status

Scientific name
Tupinambis teguixin (Linnaeus, 1758)
Name authority
(Linnaeus, 1758)
Common name
Black Tegu
Rank
species
Accepted status
accepted
Kingdom
Animalia
Phylum
Chordata
Class
Reptilia
Order
Squamata
Family
Teiidae
Genus
Tupinambis
Extinction status
Not supplied by this source

Classification family tree

Nested taxonomic groups from the source. This is not a direct-ancestor chain, a dated evolutionary tree or a phylogenetic reconstruction.

  1. domainEukaryota (Chatton, 1925) Whittaker & Margulis, 1978
  2. kingdomAnimalia
  3. phylumChordata
  4. subphylumVertebrata
  5. infraphylumGnathostomata
  6. parvphylumOsteichthyes
  7. megaclassTetrapoda
  8. classReptilia Laurenti, 1768
  9. orderSquamata Oppel, 1811
  10. suborderAutarchoglossa
  11. familyTeiidae
  12. genusTupinambis
  13. speciesTupinambis teguixin (Linnaeus, 1758)

Close classified relatives

These entries share the source’s genus, Tupinambis. They are not necessarily the closest relatives established by molecular evidence.

SpeciesClassificationSource status
Tupinambis longilineus Avila-Pires, 1995TeiidaeChordataAccepted speciesExtinction status not supplied
Tupinambis quadrilineatus Manzani & Abe, 1997TeiidaeChordataAccepted speciesExtinction status not supplied
Cusco Tegu LizardTupinambis cuzcoensis Murphy, Jowers, Lehtinen, Charles, Colli, Peres Jr, Hendry & Pyron, 2016TeiidaeChordataAccepted speciesExtinction status not supplied
Maracaibo Basin Tegu LizardTupinambis zuliensis Murphy, Jowers, Lehtinen, Charles, Colli, Peres Jr, Hendry & Pyron, 2016TeiidaeChordataAccepted speciesExtinction status not supplied
Tupinambis matipu Silva, Ribeiro-Júnior & Ávila-Pires, 2018TeiidaeChordataAccepted speciesExtinction status not supplied
Tupinambis palustris Manzani & Abe, 2002TeiidaeChordataAccepted speciesExtinction status not supplied

Browse 108 records assigned to Teiidae.

Names & synonyms

Names explicitly linked to this accepted taxon in the source. Synonymy can change with revision.

Recorded nameSource status
Lacerta teguixin Linnaeus, 1758 Linnaeus, 1758synonym
Monitor meriani Blainville, 1816 Blainville, 1816synonym
Monitor teguixin Fitzinger, 1826 Fitzinger, 1826synonym
Lacerta monitor Latreille, 1801 Latreille, 1801ambiguous synonym
Laacerta tupinambis Lacépède, 1788 Lacépède, 1788synonym
Monitor (Tutor) americanus Goldfuss, 1820 Goldfuss, 1820synonym
Podinema teguixin Wagler, 1830 Wagler, 1830synonym
Seps marmoratus Laurenti, 1768 Laurenti, 1768synonym
Tupinambis monitor Daudin, 1802 Daudin, 1802synonym
Tupinambis nigropunctatus Spix, 1825 Spix, 1825synonym

Documented distribution

Source distribution statements, not a complete range map. A listed locality is not necessarily a place of origin.

Colombia, Venezuela (Cojedes), Isla Margarita, Tobago, Ecuador, Brazil (Amazonas, Acre, Amapa, Goias, Maranhao, Mato Grosso, Para, Rondonia, Roraima, Rio Grande do Sul, Bahia, Ceará, Piauí), Peru, Trinidad, N Argentina (Buenos Aires, La Pampa, San Luis, Córdoba), Bolivia (Beni, Cochabamba, Pando, Santa Cruz), Guyana, Suriname, French Guiana

Source literature & publication evidence

References attached to this source record, including nomenclatural citations where supplied. This is a selected bibliography; abbreviated citations remain in the source’s form.

  1. https://reptile-database.reptarium.cz/species?genus=Tupinambis&species=teguixin Source fields: Taxon.tsv dwc:namePublishedIn, Taxon.tsv dcterms:references

Origins, evidence & remaining research

Name authority and publication references document nomenclature where the source supplies it. They do not establish evolutionary origins or the earliest fossil occurrence.

Specimen-level evidence, morphology, ecological research, phylogenetic studies, a comprehensive bibliography and a located literary passage have not yet been compiled for this record.

Dataset citation & attribution

This exact taxon in ChecklistBank · Catalogue of Life 2026-09-11

Catalogue of Life 2026-09-11; dataset 316321; doi:10.48580/dgz5n. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ . Retrieved 5 October 2026.

Stable key: col:59M2Z. Classification follows source parent identifiers. English common names may vary by region.