Reptilia · Squamata
Psammodromus algirusLinnaeus, 1758
Algerian Psammodromus
Photograph by Diego González Dopico, CC BY, via iNaturalist
A day-active, omnivorous lizard from the Saharo-Sindian region, reaching 95 mm snout to vent.
Reptilia › Squamata › Lacertidae › Psammodromus
- Grows to
- 95mm
- greatest recorded
- Eats
- Omnivorous
- Active
- Diurnal
- Lives up to
- 5years
Longer than 87% of all species in Lacertidae 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 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
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
- 2008
- Population trend
- Stable
The animal itself
- Limbs
- Four legs
- Venomous
- No
- Fangs
- None
- Longest recorded life
- 5years
- Preferred body temperature · chosen in a laboratory gradientmeasured
- 31.6–35.6°C89–96 °F
- Body temperature when active · measured in the wild
- 32.75°C91 °F
- Body temp in the wild · mean, when active
- 27.2–35.4°C81–96 °F
TAU museum records: 2 years and 9 months; Comas et al. 2016: 5 (inferred; 5 LAGs), Comas et al. 2019 (max 5 years in females, 4 in males, nature)
mean body temperature of active individuals in nature
body temperature of active animals in nature
Size
- Length snout to vent · greatest recorded
- 95mm3.75 in
- Length snout to vent · adult female mean
- 68.3mm2.75 in
- Largest female · snout to vent
- 68.3mm2.75 in
- Hatchling length · snout to vent
- 27.5mm1 in
- Largest juvenile · snout to vent
- 27.5mm1 in
- Body mass · greatestcomputed
- 19.65g0.69 oz
- Body mass at hatchingmeasured
- 0.48g0.02 oz
Shai Meiri, unpublished
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
- Omnivorous
- How it hunts
- Active foraging
- Active
- Diurnal
- Where it lives
- Arboreal, saxicolous, terrestrial
- Habitat
- Forest, Shrubland
- Biome
- Mediterranean
- Active season · months of the year
- 9–12months
- Region
- Saharo-Sindian
- Mainland or island
- Mainland
- Highest it lives · above sea level
- 2610m
- Range size
- 1,118,280km²
- Density
- 13–178per hectare
- Home range · largest recorded
- 864m2
Arthropods ("with the occasional small lizard and vegetation" Arnold and Ovenden 2004) / Omnivorous (23% plants, Cooper and Vitt 2002. up to 23.3%, Corti and Cascio 2002), see Salvador 2010, Valakos 1986, insectivorous (Iraeta et al. 2013) / invertebrates (Bouam et al. 2016, details in Mamou et al. 2016), Arthropods (Barnagaud et al. 2020; details in e.g., Moreno-Rueda et al. 2018)
Zamora-Camacho et al. 2014, Butler 2005, Moreno-Rueda et al. 2018
(heliothermic, Iraeta et al. 2013), thermophilic with extrreme heat tolerance (del Marmol et al. 2019)
variable (terrestrial, Malkmus 2004)/terrestrial (Iraeta et al. 2013)/terrestrial (80%) and arboreal (20%, Barnagaud et al. 2020), mostly terrestrial, also climbs (del Marmol et al. 2019)
0 to over 2600 (Moreno-Rueda et al. 2018), 2200 (Grossmann 2019), Sannolo et al. 2019 sampled from 650 to 1300, 200-2600 (Comas et al. 2019), 0-2600 (del Marmol et al. 2019)
Breeding
- Reproduction
- Oviparous
- Sex decided by
- Genes, ZW/ZZ
- Average clutch
- 5.35eggs
- Eggs or young per clutch
- 1–11eggs
- Mean clutch
- 3.6–8eggs
- Clutches in a year
- 2per year
- Clutches a year
- 1–3per year
- First breeds at
- 12–13months
2-11 (Maso and Pijoan 2011, Speybroeck et al. 2016, Kwet 2015), 4-8 (Hraoui-Bloquet 1987), mean 8 (Barnagaud et al. 2020)
Naming and history
- Suborder
- Sauria
- Infraorder
- Laterata
- Subspecies
- Psammodromus algirus algirus (LINNAEUS 1758) Psammodromus algirus doriae BEDRIAGA 1886 Psammodromus algirus nollii FISCHER 1887 Psammodromus algirus ketamensis GALAN 1931
- Described by
- Linnaeus
- Moved to another genus · since it was first described
- Yes
- Described in
- 1758
- Type locality
- Mauritania
Keeping one
15 in × 15 in × 15 in(38 × 38 × 38 cm)
Minimum length × width × height, for one animal. Bigger is always better.
The standard sizes ground species at 4 × 4 × 2.5 and climbing species at 4 × 2.5 × 4 times snout-vent length.
Recorded both on the ground and climbing, so this is the larger of the two rules in every dimension.
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 3.75 in (95 mm), at 4 × 4 × 4 times it, following the German federal welfare standard — how this is worked out.
In a laboratory thermal gradient this species settled at 89–96 °F (31.6–35.6 °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.
3kJ per day
Worked out for an animal of 20 g, the heaviest recorded for Algerian Psammodromus — 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
- — 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 in
- — Lowest it lives · above sea level
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). Psammodromus algirus. Retrieved 2026-09-08, from https://www.allanglescreatures.com/species/psammodromus-algirus
@misc{psammodromus_algirus_2026,
title = {Psammodromus algirus},
author = {{The Reptile & Amphibian Encyclopedia}},
year = {2026},
url = {https://www.allanglescreatures.com/species/psammodromus-algirus}
}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.