Quick Facts: Desert Spiny Lizard

                                                     Scientific Classification: Sceloporus Magister
Kingdom:  Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Subphylum: Vertebrata
Class: Reptilia
Order: Squamata
Suborder: Lacertilia
Family:  Phrynosomatidae
Genus: Sceloporus
Species: Magister

Description
A stocky lizard with large pointed, overlapping scales.  Its base color is gray, tan, or brown.  Males have blue-green patches on their belly and under their throat.

Geographic Location
United States of America: Nevada, Arizona, California, Texas, New Mexico, Utah; Mexico: Sonora, Baja California, Chihuahua, Coahuila, and Durango

Habitat
It lives in semi arid environments, rocky terrains, grassy plains, low mountain slopes, riparian woods. It prefers to live near Joshua trees, creosote bushes, mesquite tress, yuccas, and grasses.

Diet
This lizard feeds on insects such as ants, spiders, beetles, caterpillars, wasps, moths, butterflies, grasshoppers, crickets, and other bugs.  They get water from the insects that they eat.  On rare occasions they eat green plants.

Behavior
This diurnal animal basks in the sun and scurries to safety under boulders, burrows, crevices, and vegetation. It hibernates during late fall and the cold months or winter. It takes shelter during extreme heat or cold conditions. This lizard is a good climber and is often seen on rocks, trees, and walls.

Adaptations
The desert spiny lizard uses camouflage to avoid predators. It also adjusts its internal temperature by changing color so they are darker during cool times and lighter during warmer times. In the winter they become darker so that they could absorb more heat from the sun. During the summer their lighter coloration allows them to reflect more solar radiation.  This lizard also has a powerful limb musculature that allows rapid acceleration and can change direction rapidly to catch insects or escape predators.

Reproduction
Mating takes place in spring or early summer.  Females lay 3 to 24 eggs in the summer and take 60 to 75 days to hatch. Each female can lay up to 3 clutches of young in a year.

Predators
Coachwhip snakes, longnose leopard lizards, hawks, foxes, and coyotes prey on desert spiny lizards.

This is a female desert spiny lizard that lives in our school garden.
This picture was taken in the summer.  Notice its light coloration.