Reptilia · Squamata
Phymaturus pallumaMolina, 1782
High Mountain Lizard
Photograph by Guillermo Debandi, CC BY, via iNaturalist
A rock-dwelling, day-active, plant-eating lizard from the Neotropic region, reaching 111 mm snout to vent.
Once published as Centrura flagellifer, Phymaturus adrianae — those names reach this page.
Reptilia › Squamata › Liolaemidae › Phymaturus
- Grows to
- 110.7mm
- greatest recorded
- Eats
- Herbivorous
- Active
- Diurnal
- Lives up to
- 12years
Longer than 98% of all species in Liolaemidae anyone has measured.
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
43 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
- 2014
- Population trend
- Stable
The animal itself
- Limbs
- Four legs
- Venomous
- No
- Fangs
- None
- Longest recorded life
- 12years
- Preferred body temperature · chosen in a laboratory gradientmeasured
- 35.2–35.3°C95–96 °F
- Body temperature when active · measured in the wild
- 33.25°C92 °F
- Body temp in the wild · mean, when active
- 31.7–34.2°C89–94 °F
Eisenberg and Werning 2012: 12
mean body temperature of active individuals in nature
body temperature of active animals in nature
Size
- Length snout to vent · greatest recorded
- 110.7mm4.25 in
- Length snout to vent · adult female mean
- 94.5mm3.75 in
- Largest female · snout to vent
- 94.5mm3.75 in
- Hatchling length · snout to vent
- 44.69mm1.75 in
- Largest juvenile · snout to vent
- 44.7mm1.75 in
- Body mass · greatestcomputed
- 56.59g2 oz
- Body mass at hatchingmeasured
- 4.5g0.16 oz
max 110.7 mm SVL (Feldman et al. 2016)
snout-vent length; the source column mixes this with straight carapace length
computed from length by a family-level allometric equation, not weighed
How it lives
- Diet
- Herbivorous
- How it hunts
- Sit and wait
- Active
- Diurnal
- Where it lives
- Saxicolous
- Habitat
- Rocky
- Biome
- Montane Grasslands & Savannas
- Region
- Neotropic
- Mainland or island
- Mainland
- Elevation · above sea level
- 1000–4000m
- Range size
- 180,821km²
- Home range · largest recorded
- 273.5m2
Omnivorous (e.g., Donoso-Barros 1966)/ Herbivorous (Cooper and Vitt 2002, Cei 1986, Pincheira-Donoso et al. 2008 for flagellifer; Castro et al. 2013, Vicenzi et al. 2021), Vicenzi and Massarelli 2018: herbivorous but deliberately licks soil,
Mesquita et al. 2016
e.g., Vicenzi et al. 2017, Vicenzi et al. 2019
(e.g., Mesquita et al. 2016, Vicenzi et al. 2019, Vicenzi et al. 2021, Ibarguengoytia et al. 2021) / terrestrial (Colli et al. 2002)
1400-3800 (Vicenzi et al. 2017, Vicenzi et al. 2019)
Breeding
- Reproduction
- Viviparous
- Sex decided by
- Genes, XX/XY
- Average clutch
- 2.75eggs
- Eggs or young per clutch
- 1–5eggs
- Mean clutch
- 1.5–4eggs
- Clutches in a year
- 0.5per year
- Clutches a year
- 0.5–0.75per year
e.g., Vicenzi et al. 2021
3-5 quoting Cei (Eisenberg and Werning 2012), mean 1.5 (e.g., Mesquita et al. 2016)
Naming and history
- Suborder
- Sauria
- Infraorder
- Pleurodonta
- Subspecies
- No
- Described by
- Molina
- Moved to another genus · since it was first described
- Yes
- Described in
- 1782
- Type locality
- Chile
Keeping one
17.5 in × 17.5 in × 11 in(44 × 44 × 28 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 4.25 in (110.7 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 95–96 °F (35.2–35.3 °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.
7kJ per day
Worked out for an animal of 57 g, the heaviest recorded for High Mountain 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
- — Eats arthropods
- — Eats vertebrates
- — Eats plant matter
- — How the young develop
- — Gestation or incubation
- — First breeds from · youngest recorded
- — First breeds by · oldest recorded
- — 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
- — Active season · shortest recorded
- — Active season · longest recorded
- — Density · lowest recorded
- — Density · highest recorded
- — Active in
Others in Liolaemidae
- Agua Negra Chuckwalla
- Agueda’s Rocky Lizard
- Aluminé River Smooth-throated Lizard
- Andes Tree Iguana
- Antofagasta Chuckwalla
- Antonieta’s lizard
- Antuco Chuckwalla
- Arambaré Smooth-throated Lizard
- Auca Mahuida Volcano Chuckwalla
- Austral Smooth-throated lizard
- Austromendocino Tree Iguana
- Awsanqati Smooth-throated Lizard
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). Phymaturus palluma. Retrieved 2026-09-08, from https://www.allanglescreatures.com/species/phymaturus-palluma
@misc{phymaturus_palluma_2026,
title = {Phymaturus palluma},
author = {{The Reptile & Amphibian Encyclopedia}},
year = {2026},
url = {https://www.allanglescreatures.com/species/phymaturus-palluma}
}Sources
- Meiri, S. (2024). SquamBase — a database of squamate (Reptilia: Squamata) traits. Global Ecology and Biogeography. Public domain (CC0).
- Oskyrko, O. et al. (2024). ReptTraits: a comprehensive dataset of ecological traits in reptiles. Scientific Data. Used under CC BY 4.0.
- Catalogue of Life (dataset 3LR), used under CC BY.