# Purple lizards and snakes **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [July 5, 2018, 9:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/purple-lizards-and-snakes/817349 "2018-07-05T21:59:13Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 13\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Malleus\_Incus\_Stapes](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/malleus_incus_stapes/32/3293_2.png) [@Malleus\_Incus\_Stapes](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Malleus_Incus_Stapes)\ **Post date:** [July 5, 2018, 9:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/purple-lizards-and-snakes/817349/1 "2018-07-05T21:59:13Z")
My cow-orker mentioned that he wants to get a [sailfin lizard](https://www.google.com/search?q=hydrosaurus+pustulatus&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwiy0diJ9IjcAhUOc98KHa1FCzkQ_AUICigB&biw=1920&bih=946#imgrc=hU768RXI2L6zyM:), and I’ve become fascinated with purple squamates. I’ve been trying to look up more violently violet reptiles during breaks at work. But… I haven’t come up with a lot. There’s the aforementioned sailfins… and an endless assortment of terrible photoshop jobs, decently executed but still biologically implausible photoshop jobs, commercial morphs that just have “purple” or “lavender” in their names, and specimens that look purple in one picture but it turns out to be the lighting or freak genetics or something. Do you guys know of any other actual purple reptiles? PS. it’s blue, not purple, but [axanthic iguanas](https://www.google.com/search?q=axanthic+iguana&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwja9eqp-ojcAhVLON8KHVOIAzwQ_AUICigB&biw=1920&bih=946) are super-cool. ---
**Author:** ![beowulff](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/beowulff/32/542_2.png) [@beowulff](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/beowulff)\ **Post date:** [July 5, 2018, 10:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/purple-lizards-and-snakes/817349/2 "2018-07-05T22:05:33Z")
[Eastern Indigo snake?](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eastern_indigo_snake) ---
**Author:** ![WolfpackJeep](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wolfpackjeep/32/2921_2.png) [@WolfpackJeep](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WolfpackJeep)\ **Post date:** [July 5, 2018, 11:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/purple-lizards-and-snakes/817349/3 "2018-07-05T23:07:40Z")
The best we can do around here is the [juvenile five-lined skink](http://www.virginiaherpetologicalsociety.com/reptiles/lizards/common-five-lined-skink/five-lined_skink.php), which has a lovely blue tail that can be found in various intensities, some of which are deep enough to be mistaken for some shade of violet if the light is just right. ---
**Author:** ![Colibri](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/colibri/32/1841_2.png) [@Colibri](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colibri)\ **Post date:** [July 6, 2018, 2:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/purple-lizards-and-snakes/817349/4 "2018-07-06T02:20:46Z")
How about the [Mwanza Flat-headed Rock Agama.](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/0/0f/MC_Siedleragame.jpg) (They can be bluer, but are often violet.) ---
**Author:** ![mixdenny](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mixdenny/32/2962_2.png) [@mixdenny](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mixdenny)\ **Post date:** [July 6, 2018, 3:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/purple-lizards-and-snakes/817349/5 "2018-07-06T03:49:07Z")
I was going to suggest getting a chameleon and putting it on a purple surface but it turns out there is a Purple Panther Chameleon. [![](https://img.youtube.com/vi/vljislCj4Sg/hqdefault.jpg "Purple panther chameleon") ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vljislCj4Sg) ---
**Author:** ![MrDibble](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mrdibble/32/114_2.png) [@MrDibble](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MrDibble)\ **Post date:** [July 6, 2018, 10:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/purple-lizards-and-snakes/817349/6 "2018-07-06T10:50:48Z")
> [@Colibri](#): > > How about the [Mwanza Flat-headed Rock Agama.](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/0/0f/MC_Siedleragame.jpg) (They can be bluer, but are often violet.) The Spiderman Agama! ---
**Author:** ![Malleus\_Incus\_Stapes](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/malleus_incus_stapes/32/3293_2.png) [@Malleus\_Incus\_Stapes](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Malleus_Incus_Stapes)\ **Post date:** [July 6, 2018, 12:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/purple-lizards-and-snakes/817349/7 "2018-07-06T12:12:56Z")
> [@Colibri](#): > > How about the [Mwanza Flat-headed Rock Agama.](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/0/0f/MC_Siedleragame.jpg) (They can be bluer, but are often violet.) My boss said yesterday that she wants one of those. I’m not sure if she’s serious or not. ---
**Author:** ![beowulff](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/beowulff/32/542_2.png) [@beowulff](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/beowulff)\ **Post date:** [July 6, 2018, 1:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/purple-lizards-and-snakes/817349/8 "2018-07-06T13:12:10Z")
> [@Malleus\_Incus\_Stapes](#): > > My boss said yesterday that she wants one of those. I’m not sure if she’s serious or not. Tell her I said that pets should not be a fashion accessory. ---
**Author:** ![Colibri](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/colibri/32/1841_2.png) [@Colibri](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colibri)\ **Post date:** [July 6, 2018, 3:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/purple-lizards-and-snakes/817349/9 "2018-07-06T15:15:58Z")
Either this species or a related one has been featured in a popular Facebook meme. [I’m sick of politics, here’s a lizard with a butterfly on its head.](https://images-cdn.9gag.com/photo/aE7XnOM_700b.jpg)😃 ---
**Author:** ![Malleus\_Incus\_Stapes](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/malleus_incus_stapes/32/3293_2.png) [@Malleus\_Incus\_Stapes](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Malleus_Incus_Stapes)\ **Post date:** [July 6, 2018, 9:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/purple-lizards-and-snakes/817349/10 "2018-07-06T21:26:34Z")
> [@beowulff](#): > > Tell her I said that pets should not be a fashion accessory. She’s an experienced reptile keeper, she wouldn’t get something she couldn’t take care of. > [@Colibri](#): > > Either this species or a related one has been featured in a popular Facebook meme. > > [I’m sick of politics, here’s a lizard with a butterfly on its head.](https://images-cdn.9gag.com/photo/aE7XnOM_700b.jpg)😃 You wouldn’t happen to know the species? Or if it is a real species? ---
**Author:** ![Colibri](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/colibri/32/1841_2.png) [@Colibri](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colibri)\ **Post date:** [July 6, 2018, 9:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/purple-lizards-and-snakes/817349/11 "2018-07-06T21:45:05Z")
> [@Malleus\_Incus\_Stapes](#): > > You wouldn’t happen to know the species? Or if it is a real species? My guess is that it’s another species of Agama (of which there are many), or possibly just a variant of the Mwanza. But I couldn’t really tell you which one. ---
**Author:** ![Lemur866](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lemur866/32/434_2.png) [@Lemur866](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lemur866)\ **Post date:** [July 6, 2018, 10:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/purple-lizards-and-snakes/817349/12 "2018-07-06T22:02:20Z")
> [@Colibri](#): > > How about the [Mwanza Flat-headed Rock Agama.](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/0/0f/MC_Siedleragame.jpg) (They can be bluer, but are often violet.) Jesus. That thing is colored like a four-year-old’s crayon sketch of a Triceratops. ---
**Author:** ![Colibri](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/colibri/32/1841_2.png) [@Colibri](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colibri)\ **Post date:** [July 6, 2018, 10:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/purple-lizards-and-snakes/817349/13 "2018-07-06T22:05:39Z")
> [@Lemur866](#): > > Jesus. That thing is colored like a four-year-old’s crayon sketch of a Triceratops. For all we know, it[could be accurate](https://previews.123rf.com/images/sciencerf/sciencerf1704/sciencerf170432789/76205691-artwork-of-a-triceratops-dinosaur.jpg).😃