Texas horned lizard blunt snout, which give it a decidedly batrachian appearance. "Phrynosoma" literally means "toad-bodied" and "cornutum" means "horned". The lizard's horns are extensions of its cranium and contain true bone. The Texas horned lizard is the largest-bodied and most widely distributed of the roughly 14 species of horned lizards in the western United States and Mexico. The average Texas horned lizard is in snout-vent length, but the upper boundary for males is and for females it is . Although its coloration generally serves as camouflage against predation, when threatened by a predator, a horned lizard puffs up and appears very fat,
Horned Serpent creature and sometimes different—similar, but the Horned Serpent is larger than the Tie-Snake. To the Muscogee people, the Horned Serpent is a type of underwater serpent covered with iridescent, crystalline scales and a single, large crystal in its forehead. Both the scales and crystals are prized for their powers of divination. The horns, called "chitto gab-by", were used in medicine. Jackson Lewis, a Muscogee Creek informant to John R. Swanton, said, "This snake lives in the water has horns like the stag. It is not a bad snake. ... It does not harm human beings but seems to have a