All Angles Creatures
Squamata · LacertidaeEntry 10,238 of 21,572
Pyrenean Rock Lizard, Iberolacerta bonnali

Reptilia · Squamata

Iberolacerta bonnaliLantz, 1927

Pyrenean Rock Lizard

Photograph by Antoine Thivolle, CC BY, via iNaturalist

A day-active, meat-eating lizard from the Palearctic region, reaching 65 mm snout to vent.

Once published as Lacerta bonnali — those names reach this page.

ReptiliaSquamataLacertidaeIberolacerta

Grows to
65.4mm
greatest recorded
Eats
Carnivorous
Active
Diurnal
Lives
Saxicolous, terrestrial
Body length across Lacertidae

Longer than only 43% of all species in Lacertidae anyone has measured.

43% of 372 species are smaller57% larger
35 mmthe whole family, smallest to largest444 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 35 to 444 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

42 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
Near Threatened
Status assessed · the year the Red List last looked
2008
Population trend
Stable

The animal itself

Limbs
Four legs
Venomous
No
Fangs
None
Body temperature when active · measured in the wild
29.95°C86 °F

mean body temperature of active individuals in nature

Body temp in the wild · mean, when active
29–30.9°C84–88 °F

body temperature of active animals in nature

Size

Length snout to vent · greatest recorded
65.4mm2.5 in

max 65.36 mm SVL (Feldman et al. 2016)

Length snout to vent · adult female mean
55.9mm2.25 in
Largest female · snout to vent
55.9mm2.25 in

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

Hatchling length · snout to vent
24.35mm1 in
Largest juvenile · snout to vent
24.4mm1 in
Body mass · greatestcomputed
6.52g0.23 oz

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

Body mass at hatchingmeasured
0.35g0.01 oz

How it lives

Diet
Carnivorous

Arthropods (see "Sources (general)")

How it hunts
Active foraging

Active foraging

Active
Diurnal

Diurnal, heliotherm (Gangloff et al. 2021)

Where it lives
Saxicolous, terrestrial

Terrestrial and Saxicolous (e.g., Arribas 2010)

Habitat
Grassland, Rocky
Biome
Temperate Broadleaf & Mixed Forests
Active season · months of the year
3–6months
Region
Palearctic
Mainland or island
Mainland
Elevation · above sea level
1550–3070m

1700-3000 (Kwet 2015), 1550-3062 (Gangloff et al. 2021)

Range size
1583km²
Density
20–6840per hectare

Breeding

Reproduction
Oviparous
Sex decided by
Genes, ZW/ZZ
Average clutch
3.03eggs
Eggs or young per clutch
1–4eggs

2-4 (Maso and Pijoan 2011), 1-3 (Kwet 2015)

Mean clutch
3.03eggs
Clutches a year
1per year
First breeds at
23–24months

Naming and history

Suborder
Sauria
Infraorder
Laterata
Subspecies
No
Described by
Lantz
Moved to another genus · since it was first described
Yes
Described in
1927
Type locality
France

Keeping one

10.5 in × 10.5 in × 6.5 in(26 × 26 × 16 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.

Lives on rock, so stable hard surfaces and basking ledges suit it.

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 2.5 in (65.4 mm), at 4 × 4 × 2.5 times it, following the German federal welfare standard — how this is worked out.

Active animals measured in the wild averaged 86 °F (30 °C).

Mean body temperature of active individuals measured in nature. 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.

1kJ per day

Worked out for an animal of 7 g, the heaviest recorded for Pyrenean Rock 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
  • Body mass · a typical adult
  • Body mass · adult female, mean
  • Longest recorded life
  • Preferred body temperature · chosen in a laboratory gradient
  • Eats arthropods
  • Eats vertebrates
  • Eats plant matter
  • How the young develop
  • Gestation or incubation
  • Clutches in a year
  • 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
  • Home range · largest recorded
  • Active in

Others in Lacertidae

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). Iberolacerta bonnali. Retrieved 2026-09-08, from https://www.allanglescreatures.com/species/iberolacerta-bonnali

@misc{iberolacerta_bonnali_2026,
  title  = {Iberolacerta bonnali},
  author = {{The Reptile & Amphibian Encyclopedia}},
  year   = {2026},
  url    = {https://www.allanglescreatures.com/species/iberolacerta-bonnali}
}

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.