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Squamata · AnguidaeEntry 7,517 of 21,572
Southern Alligator Lizard, Elgaria multicarinata

Reptilia · Squamata

Elgaria multicarinataBlainville, 1835

Southern Alligator Lizard

Photograph by Connor Long, CC BY-SA, via Wikimedia Commons

An active by day or night, meat-eating lizard from the Nearctic region, reaching 178 mm snout to vent.

Once published as Elgaria nana, Gerrhonotus multicarinatus, Gerrhonotus scincicauda — those names reach this page.

Reptilia › Squamata › Anguidae › Elgaria

Grows to
178mm
greatest recorded
Eats
Carnivorous
Active
Cathemeral
Lives up to
15years
Body length across Anguidae

Longer than 74% of all species in Anguidae anyone has measured.

74% of 86 species are smaller26% larger
72 mmthe whole family, smallest to largest610 mm

The bar is the rank itself: its length is the share of the family this animal exceeds. The chart below is the family’s real spread, on a logarithmic scale because body length here runs from 72 to 610 mm. The solid rule is this animal. Every bar is a count of real species, and nothing on this figure is estimated.

What is known

46 sourced facts, each taken from a named scientific dataset. How to read these.

Cited from a dataset unless a row is marked otherwise.

Standing in the world

Still living
Extant
Conservation status
Least Concern
Status assessed · the year the Red List last looked
2007
Population trend
Decreasing

The animal itself

Limbs
Four legs
Venomous
No
Fangs
None
Longest recorded life
15years

De Magalhaes & Costa 2009, Lemm pers. Com. In San Diego zoo factsheet (http://library.sandiegozoo.org/factsheets/alligator_lizard/alligatorlizard.htm), Slavens and Slavens 1999 (9 years, 10 months)

Preferred body temperature · chosen in a laboratory gradientmeasured
23.3–33.6°C74–92 °F
Body temperature when active · measured in the wild
24.5°C76 °F

mean body temperature of active individuals in nature

Body temp in the wild · mean, when active
21–28°C70–82 °F

body temperature of active animals in nature

Size

Length snout to vent · greatest recorded
178mm7 in

max 178 mm SVL (Feldman et al. 2016)

Length snout to vent · adult female mean
119.7mm4.75 in
Largest female · snout to vent
119.7mm4.75 in

snout-vent length; the source column mixes this with straight carapace length

Hatchling length · snout to vent
31mm1.25 in
Largest juvenile · snout to vent
31mm1.25 in
Body mass · greatestcomputed
116.5g4.1 oz

computed from length by a family-level allometric equation, not weighed

Body mass · a typical adult
31.5g1.1 oz

AnAge rates this record "acceptable"

Body mass · adult female, meanmeasured
42.03g1.5 oz
Body mass at hatchingmeasured
0.55g0.02 oz

How it lives

Diet
Carnivorous

Invertebrates and Vertebrates, including bird eggs and chicks (Jones and Lovich 2009, St. John 2002), arthropods, bird eggs and small mammals (Storm and Leonard 1995), slugs, arthropods, lizards, small mammals bird eggs and chicks (Stebbins and McGinnis 2018)

How it hunts
Mixed

Sit and Wait (e.g., Kingsbury 1995) / active foraging (Mesquita et al. 2016, Yasuda 2015 and implied in Stebbins and McGinnis 2018)

Active
Cathemeral

Diurnal (Rogner 1997b, Storm and Leonard 1995) also "partly nocturnal in warmer parts of the year" (Stebbins 2003, Stebbins and McGinnis 2018)

Where it lives
Cryptic

Terrestrial (Mesquita et al. 2016), Cryptic

Habitat
Forest, Grassland, Rocky, Shrubland
Biome
Mediterranean
Active season · months of the year
12months
Region
Nearctic
Mainland or island
Mainland
Highest it lives · above sea level
3140m

121-971 (Storm and Leonard 1995), 0-1524 (Stebbins and McGinnis 2018), 3139 (Esparza and Pauly 2020)

Range size
217,695km²

Breeding

Reproduction
Oviparous
Sex decided by
Temperature
Average clutch
10.9eggs
Eggs or young per clutch
1–20eggs

5-20 (Jones and Lovich 2009, Zaldivar Riveron et al. 2002, Stebbins and McGinnis 2018), 8-14 (St. John 2002), means 11.6-12 (Mesquita et al. 2016), 12-20 (Shaw 1952, n=2), up to 20 (Grismer and Grismer 2022), I had a max of 41, not sure where from

Mean clutch
8.8–13eggs
Clutches in a year
2per year
Clutches a year
1–3per year
First breeds at
18months

Naming and history

Suborder
Sauria
Infraorder
Anguimoprha
Subspecies
Elgaria multicarinata multicarinata (BLAINVILLE,1835) Elgaria multicarinata scincicauda (SKILTON 1849) Elgaria multicarinata webbii (BAIRD 1859) Elgaria multicarinata ignava (VAN DENBURGH 1905)f Elgaria multicarinata nana (FITCH 1934)
Described by
Blainville
Moved to another genus · since it was first described
Yes
Described in
1835
Type locality
Mexico

Keeping one

2 ft 4 in × 2 ft 4 in × 17.5 in(71 × 71 × 45 cm)

Minimum length × width × height, for one animal. Bigger is always better.

The standard sizes ground-dwelling species at 4 × 4 × 2.5 times snout-vent length.

Mindestanforderungen an die Haltung von Reptilien (Sachverständigengutachten), German Federal Ministry for Nutrition, Agriculture and Forestry, Animal Welfare Division, 10 January 1997. The standard states these floor areas are recommendations rather than binding limits.

From this animal’s own snout-vent length of 7 in (178 mm), at 4 × 4 × 2.5 times it, following the German federal welfare standard — how this is worked out.

In a laboratory thermal gradient this species settled at 74–92 °F (23.3–33.6 °C).

Preferred body temperature, recorded in a laboratory gradient where the animal could choose freely. A measurement of the animal, not a setting for a thermostat.

Feeding

A prey item should be no wider than the space between the animal's eyes.

Widely used across reptile husbandry references. The stated reason is that the gap approximates the width of the throat, so wider prey is associated with impaction. This is established practice, not a measurement.

13kJ per day

Worked out for an animal of 117 g, the heaviest recorded for Southern Alligator Lizard — so it is the top of the range, not a figure for a particular animal. Weigh yours and the number will be lower.

An upper estimate, not a feeding target, and not veterinary advice. The equation covers only what an animal burns staying alive, so a growing, gravid or recovering animal needs more — and it was measured on wild animals, which move far more than one in an enclosure. Body condition and a vet who knows the species are what a feeding decision should rest on. Where this comes from.

What nobody knows

These are not gaps in our research. No scientific dataset records them for this species — and saying so is information you cannot get from a reference that simply leaves a field out.

  • — Length snout to vent · adult male mean
  • — Length snout to vent · adult mean
  • — Length nose to tail · greatest recorded
  • — Female length · mean, nose to tail
  • — Length nose to tail · adult male mean
  • — Length nose to tail · adult mean
  • — Largest male · snout to vent
  • — Largest female · shell length
  • — Largest male · shell length
  • — Hatchling length · nose to tail
  • — Largest juvenile · shell length
  • — Egg length
  • — Egg width
  • — Eats arthropods
  • — Eats vertebrates
  • — Eats plant matter
  • — How the young develop
  • — Gestation or incubation
  • — Hatchling length · smallest recorded
  • — Hatchling length · largest recorded
  • — Age at first breeding · female
  • — Mature from · youngest recorded
  • — Mature by · oldest recorded
  • — Size at maturity · smallest recorded
  • — Size at maturity · largest recorded
  • — Colour on the back
  • — Pattern on the back
  • — Pupil
  • — Red List criteria
  • — Density · lowest recorded
  • — Density · highest recorded
  • — Home range · largest recorded
  • — Active in
  • — Lowest it lives · above sea level

Others in Anguidae

Take this data

Everything on this page is available as data under CC BY 4.0 — use it freely, credit it, no permission needed.

This species as JSON · the whole dataset

Cite this page

The Reptile & Amphibian Encyclopedia (2026). Elgaria multicarinata. Retrieved 2026-09-08, from https://www.allanglescreatures.com/species/elgaria-multicarinata

@misc{elgaria_multicarinata_2026,
  title  = {Elgaria multicarinata},
  author = {{The Reptile & Amphibian Encyclopedia}},
  year   = {2026},
  url    = {https://www.allanglescreatures.com/species/elgaria-multicarinata}
}

Sources

  1. Meiri, S. (2024). SquamBase — a database of squamate (Reptilia: Squamata) traits. Global Ecology and Biogeography. Public domain (CC0).
  2. Oskyrko, O. et al. (2024). ReptTraits: a comprehensive dataset of ecological traits in reptiles. Scientific Data. Used under CC BY 4.0.
  3. Catalogue of Life (dataset 3LR), used under CC BY.
  4. AnAge, Human Ageing Genomic Resources (de Magalhães et al.), used under CC BY 3.0.