Florida is crawling with lizards. But which ones can actually hurt you?

Florida can feel like an open-air reptile zoo. The state is home to dozens of nonnative lizard species, most of which are bigger, faster and stronger than native lizards. The reptiles range from 4-inch Cuban brown anoles to nuisance green iguanas to imposing 5-foot predators such as the Nile monitor.

Though some of these creatures look like mini Jurassic monsters, are they actually aggressive enough to be dangerous?

They can certainly be dangerous to one another: Foot-long rock agamas from Africa dine on smaller anoles, and the largest nonnative lizard here, Nile monitors, take down iguanas.

The South Florida Sun Sentinel spoke with biologists about the species you’re most likely to encounter in Florida to figure out which of these animals really pose a threat to humans.

The little guy