Reptilia · Squamata
Phymaturus tenebrosusLobo & Quinteros, 2005
Dark Chuckwalla
Photograph by Ariadna Tripaldi, CC BY, via iNaturalist
A rock-dwelling, day-active, plant-eating lizard from the Neotropic region, reaching 110 mm snout to vent.
Reptilia › Squamata › Liolaemidae › Phymaturus
- Grows to
- 110.3mm
- greatest recorded
- Eats
- Herbivorous
- Active
- Diurnal
- Lives up to
- 16years
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
40 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
- Endangered
- Status assessed · the year the Red List last looked
- 2014
- Population trend
- Decreasing
- Red List criteria
- B1ab(iii,v)
The animal itself
- Limbs
- Four legs
- Venomous
- No
- Fangs
- None
- Longest recorded life
- 16years
- Preferred body temperature · chosen in a laboratory gradientmeasured
- 31.1–36°C88–97 °F
- Body temperature when active · measured in the wild
- 32°C90 °F
- Body temp in the wild · mean, when active
- 26.3–35.4°C79–96 °F
Gutierrez et al. 2013, Boretto et al. 2015, Cabezas-Cartes et al. 2015, Kubisch et al. 2017, Boretto et al. 2017, Cabezas-Cartes et .al. 2019, Boretto et al. 2020
mean body temperature of active individuals in nature
body temperature of active animals in nature
Size
- Length snout to vent · greatest recorded
- 110.3mm4.25 in
- Length snout to vent · adult female mean
- 97.1mm3.75 in
- Largest female · snout to vent
- 98.3mm3.75 in
- Body mass · greatestcomputed
- 55.94g2 oz
max 110.32 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
- Active
- Diurnal
- Where it lives
- Saxicolous
- Habitat
- Rocky
- Biome
- Temperate Grasslands, Savannas & Shrublands
- Active season · months of the year
- 10months
- Region
- Neotropic
- Mainland or island
- Mainland
- Elevation · above sea level
- 570–1400m
- Range size
- 2692km²
e.g., Cabezas-Cartes et .al. 2019
1200-1400 (Kubisch et al. 2017), 575-1230 (Boretto et al. 2020)
Breeding
- Reproduction
- Viviparous
- Average clutch
- 2eggs
- Eggs or young per clutch
- 2eggs
- Mean clutch
- 2eggs
- Clutches in a year
- 0.5per year
- Clutches a year
- 0.5per year
- First breeds at
- 84months
Gutierrez et al. 2013, Boretto et al. 2017, Boretto et al. 2020
Naming and history
- Suborder
- Sauria
- Infraorder
- Pleurodonta
- Subspecies
- No
- Described by
- Lobo & Quinteros
- Moved to another genus · since it was first described
- No
- Described in
- 2005
- Type locality
- Argentina
Keeping one
Dark Chuckwalla is assessed as 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.
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 (110.3 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 88–97 °F (31.1–36 °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 56 g, the heaviest recorded for Dark Chuckwalla — 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 · snout to vent
- — Hatchling length · nose to tail
- — Largest juvenile · snout to vent
- — Largest juvenile · shell length
- — Egg length
- — Egg width
- — Body mass · a typical adult
- — Body mass · adult female, mean
- — Body mass at hatching
- — Eats arthropods
- — Eats vertebrates
- — Eats plant matter
- — How it hunts
- — 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
- — Sex decided by
- — Density · lowest recorded
- — Density · highest recorded
- — Home range · largest 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 tenebrosus. Retrieved 2026-09-08, from https://www.allanglescreatures.com/species/phymaturus-tenebrosus
@misc{phymaturus_tenebrosus_2026,
title = {Phymaturus tenebrosus},
author = {{The Reptile & Amphibian Encyclopedia}},
year = {2026},
url = {https://www.allanglescreatures.com/species/phymaturus-tenebrosus}
}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.