# Largest Tegu????



## Jungle Girl (Sep 12, 2010)

I' ve recently bought the book "Giant Lizards 2nd edition", and I also own the first. In the newer edition the author says that the argentine black and white tegu is the second largest species of tegu growing to 51" and that the colombian species is the largest growing to 56". I always thought and read that the argentine types were the largest (blk & wht. being lareger than reds). Any ideas on what the author was talking about? Does anyone else own the book?


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## reptastic (Sep 12, 2010)

i have no idea were he got his inormation from but the argentines grow way bigger than the columbians.the columbians average about 30-36" and the b/w's around 48-54", but if im not mistaken i think the red get a bit larger than the b/w just not as long, but the extremes can reach 5' and 25lbs. making them the largest tegu.


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## slideaboot (Sep 13, 2010)

Yeah...it sounds like that book's a bit off-base.


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## Toby_H (Sep 13, 2010)

reptastic said:


> i have no idea were he got his inormation from but the argentines grow way bigger than the columbians.the columbians average about 30-36" and the b/w's around 48-54", but if im not mistaken i think the red get a bit larger than the b/w just not as long, but the extremes can reach 5' and 25lbs. making them the largest tegu.



To my knowledge the "Extreme Giant Tegus" or "Chacoan Tegus" Bobby Hill breeds and sells are not identified as a seperate species from the Argentinean Tegus (Tupinambis merianae). If this is true, then this line of Argentinean Tegus are the largest...

The Red Tegus are identified seperately as Tupinambis rufescens. From my understanding Reds 'on average' do get slightly larger than Argentineans do 'on average'. But a typical large Red and a typical large Arg both max out at a little over 4'


But all that debatable detail aside, as mentioned, the author seems a bit off base on his/her opinions of sizes...


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