[5] The specific name — similis — is a Latin word meaning "similar to", a common description found in Linnaean taxonomy when referring to a new taxon.

[5][7] Black spiny-tailed iguanas are excellent climbers, and prefer a rocky habitat with plenty of crevices to hide in, rocks to bask on, and nearby trees to climb.

[11] González-García et al. 2009 find that abundance is highly dependent on 3 dimensional structure of landscape, tall vegetation not merely short grass.

[12] The black spiny-tailed iguana is native to southern Mexico and Central America, ranging from the Isthmus of Tehuantepec southward to Panama, occurring at sea level to ca.

[13] Its distribution is irregular and discontinuous on the Atlantic versant where it ranges through portions of Tabasco, northern Chiapas, Campeche, Yucatan, and Quintana Roo in Mexico, much of Belize, Guatemala,[14][15] and the northern coast of Honduras (often following rivers into interior valleys and canyons),[16] but with only a few isolated and disjunct records southward in eastern Nicaragua, Costa Rica, and Panama.

[13][17] On the Pacific coast its distribution is continuous from extreme southeast Oaxaca and southern Chiapas, Mexico, south through Guatemala, El Salvador,[18] Honduras,[16] Nicaragua, Costa Rica,[17] to the Azuero Peninsula in Panama.

Some herpetologist presume dispersal to the Islas San Andrés and Providencia, Colombia occurred in the Quaternary,[23] while another suspects these and some other insular populations are "likely" human introductions.

[26] These iguanas can thrive in both natural and disturbed areas, making them even more of a threat to native species[28] Mating generally occurs in the beginning of the dry season.