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Squamata · LiolaemidaeEntry 11,860 of 21,572
Lutz's Tree Iguana, Liolaemus lutzae

Reptilia · Squamata

Liolaemus lutzaeMertens, 1938

Lutz's Tree Iguana

Photograph by Diogo Luiz, CC BY, via iNaturalist

A ground-dwelling, day-active, plant-eating lizard from the Neotropic region, reaching 89 mm snout to vent.

Reptilia › Squamata › Liolaemidae › Liolaemus

Grows to
89mm
greatest recorded
Eats
Herbivorous
Active
Diurnal
Lives
Terrestrial
Body length across Liolaemidae

Longer than 60% of all species in Liolaemidae anyone has measured.

60% of 338 species are smaller40% larger
49.7 mmthe whole family, smallest to largest120 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 49.7 to 120 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

41 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
Critically Endangered
Status assessed · the year the Red List last looked
2014
Population trend
Decreasing
Red List criteria
A2c

The animal itself

Limbs
Four legs
Venomous
No
Fangs
None
Preferred body temperature · chosen in a laboratory gradientmeasured
32.4°C
Body temperature when active · measured in the wild
32.65°C91 °F

mean body temperature of active individuals in nature

Body temp in the wild · mean, when active
31.2–34.1°C88–93 °F

body temperature of active animals in nature

Size

Length snout to vent · greatest recorded
89mm3.5 in

max 89 mm SVL (Feldman et al. 2016)

Length snout to vent · adult female mean
60.8mm2.5 in
Largest female · snout to vent
60.8mm2.5 in

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

Hatchling length · snout to vent
28.1mm1 in
Largest juvenile · snout to vent
28.1mm1 in
Body mass · greatestcomputed
22.87g0.81 oz

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

How it lives

Diet
Herbivorous

Omnivorous (45-80% plants, Rocha 2000) and cannibal (Rocha in Pincheira-Donoso et al. 2008) see also Halloy et al. 2006 (plants, insects), omnivorous (Verrastro 2004, Stellatelli et al. 2016, Ocampo et al. 2022), shifts ontogenetically from arthropods to plants (Rocha 1998)

How it hunts
Sit and wait

Mesquita et al. 2016

Active
Diurnal

Pincheira-Donoso, personal communication April 2009, Militao et al. 2022

Where it lives
Terrestrial

(e.g., Mesquita et al. 2016), arenicolous (Stellatelli et al. 2016, Ibarguengoytia et al. 2021)

Habitat
Shrubland
Biome
Tropical & Subtropical Moist Broadleaf Forests
Region
Neotropic
Mainland or island
Mainland
Highest it lives · above sea level
1200m

119 (Ibarguengoytia et al. 2021)

Range size
1708km²
Home range · largest recorded
59.8m2

Breeding

Reproduction
Oviparous
Average clutch
2.64eggs
Eggs or young per clutch
1–4eggs

1-4 (Winck and Rocha 2012), means 2.27-2.48 (Mesquita et al. 2016), mean 2.5 (Gallardo and Cruz 2023)

Mean clutch
2.27–3eggs
Clutches a year
1–3per year
First breeds at
12months

Naming and history

Suborder
Sauria
Infraorder
Pleurodonta
Subspecies
No
Described by
Mertens
Moved to another genus · since it was first described
No
Described in
1938
Type locality
Brazil

Keeping one

Lutz's Tree Iguana is assessed as Critically Endangered on the IUCN Red List. Species at risk in the wild are often covered by CITES and by national law, which decide what may be bought, sold, moved across a border or kept at all — and captive-bred and wild-caught animals are usually treated differently. Check the rules where you are before acquiring one. Nothing below is a judgement about keeping this species; it is what a published welfare standard says about space, and what the animal itself was measured doing.

14 in × 14 in × 8.75 in(36 × 36 × 22 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 3.5 in (89 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 90 °F (32.4 °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

Prey size does not apply. A herbivore's diet is judged on fibre, on the ratio of calcium to phosphorus, and on avoiding plants high in oxalates.

The animal does not take prey items. This is established practice, not a measurement.

3kJ per day

Worked out for an animal of 23 g, the heaviest recorded for Lutz's Tree Iguana — 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
  • — Body mass at hatching
  • — Longest recorded life
  • — 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
  • — Sex decided by
  • — Active season · shortest recorded
  • — Active season · longest recorded
  • — Density · lowest recorded
  • — Density · highest recorded
  • — Active in
  • — Lowest it lives · above sea level

Others in Liolaemidae

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). Liolaemus lutzae. Retrieved 2026-09-08, from https://www.allanglescreatures.com/species/liolaemus-lutzae

@misc{liolaemus_lutzae_2026,
  title  = {Liolaemus lutzae},
  author = {{The Reptile & Amphibian Encyclopedia}},
  year   = {2026},
  url    = {https://www.allanglescreatures.com/species/liolaemus-lutzae}
}

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.