basilisk lizard

noun

basilisk lizard

noun

1

A tree-dwelling lizard of the genus Basiliscus.

My first impression was that the behavior was identical to that of Central American basilisk lizards (Basiliscus) or the South American lizard Uranoscodon, both of which run across water when approached.2006, Eric R. Pianka, Lizards: Windows to the Evolution of Diversity, page 73:

Entry derived from the Wiktionary, under licence CC BY-SA 4.0 — list of authors.