Lizards commonly seen include green anoles ("Anolis carolinensis"), five-lined skinks ("Plestiodon fasciatus"), broad-headed skinks "(Plestiodon laticeps"), ground skinks ("Scincella lateralis"), and prairie lizards ("Sceloporus consobrinus"). Six-lined race runners ("Aspidoscelis sexlineatus") are not uncommon, but limited to open areas with sandy soils, whereas the legless western slender glass lizard ("Ophisaurus attenuatus") prefers areas of dense grasses with sandy soils. Three lizards barely range into peripheral counties, including two rare skinks, the southern prairie skink ("Plestiodon septentrionalis") in the west and the coal skink ("Plestiodon anthracinus") in the northeast; and the Texas spiny lizard ("Sceloporus olivaceus"), common to the west, but rare in a few western Big Thicket counties. Most records of the state reptile, the Texas horned lizard ("Phrynosoma cornutum"), from east Texas are from the early and mid-twentieth century when they were popular pets, and are thought to represent released or escaped pets and not the species natural range. Two invasive species, the brown anole ("Anolis sagrei") and the nocturnal Mediterranean gecko ("Hemidactylus turcicus"), are found there.