Reptilia · Squamata
Sauromalus aterDuméril, 1856
Common Chuckwalla
Photograph placed in the public domain, CC0, via iNaturalist
A day-active, plant-eating lizard from the Nearctic region, reaching 230 mm snout to vent.
Also called Northern Chuckwalla.
Once published as Sauromalus australis, Sauromalus obesus — those names reach this page.
Reptilia › Squamata › Iguanidae › Sauromalus
- Grows to
- 230mm
- greatest recorded
- Eats
- Herbivorous
- Active
- Diurnal
- Lives up to
- 65years
Longer than only 23% of all iguanas 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 129 to 750 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
48 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
- 2007
- Population trend
- Stable
The animal itself
- Limbs
- Four legs
- Venomous
- No
- Fangs
- None
- Longest recorded life
- 65years
- Preferred body temperature · chosen in a laboratory gradientmeasured
- 36.4–36.9°C98–98 °F
- Body temperature when active · measured in the wild
- 37.1°C99 °F
- Body temp in the wild · mean, when active
- 35.9–38.3°C97–101 °F
De Magalhaes & Costa 2009, probably over 25 (Stebbins and McGinnis 2012), Sullivan and Sullivan 2012 (17, estimate: 30 and one near 40), perhaps >20 (Rorabaugh and Lemos-Espinal 2016), ADW: "The oldest common chuckwalla in captivity lived to 65 years old. (Abts, 1987; Friends of the Rosamond Gifford Zoo Education Volunteers, 2008; Johnson, 1965; Montanucci, 1997; Sullivan and Sullivan, 2008)"
mean body temperature of active individuals in nature
body temperature of active animals in nature
Size
- Length snout to vent · greatest recorded
- 230mm9 in
- Length snout to vent · adult female mean
- 164mm6.5 in
- Largest female · snout to vent
- 165mm6.5 in
- Hatchling length · snout to vent
- 52.5mm2 in
- Largest juvenile · snout to vent
- 52.5mm2 in
- Body mass · greatestcomputed
- 526.1g1.2 lb
- Body mass · a typical adult
- 230.4g8.1 oz
- Body mass at hatchingmeasured
- 6.9g0.24 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Shai Meiri, unpublished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
AnAge rates this record "acceptable"
How it lives
- Diet
- Herbivorous
- How it hunts
- Sit and wait
- Active
- Diurnal
- Where it lives
- Saxicolous, terrestrial
- Habitat
- Desert, Rocky, Shrubland
- Biome
- Deserts & Xeric Shrublands
- Active season · months of the year
- 4–12months
- Region
- Nearctic
- Mainland or island
- Mainland
- Highest it lives · above sea level
- 1800m
- Range size
- 387,696km²
- Density
- 2–14per hectare
- Home range · largest recorded
- 19,000m2
(e.g., Heimes 2022)/occasionally insects (Rorabaugh and Lemos-Espinal 2016)
Mesquita et al. 2016
e.g., Rorabaugh and Lemos-Espinal 2016, Heimes 2022
Saxicolous (e.g., Stebbins and McGinnis 2018)/ terrestrial (Mesquita et al. 2016), generally saxicolous, more terrestrial on many islands (Heimes 2022)
0-1000 (Rorabaugh and Lemos-Espinal 2016), near sea level to 1100 (Heimes 2022)
Breeding
- Reproduction
- Oviparous
- Gestation or incubation
- 35days
- Average clutch
- 7.75eggs
- Eggs or young per clutch
- 3–16eggs
- Mean clutch
- 6.9–8.6eggs
- Clutches in a year
- 0.76per year
- Clutches a year
- 0.52–1per year
- First breeds at
- 24–96months
- Age at first breeding · female
- 913days
6.9 (Charnov et al. 2007, Baumer et al. 2012), 5-16 (Stebbins and McGinnis 2012, Stebbins and McGinnis 2018), 3-7 (Aguirre and Gatica 2010), mean 8.6 (e.g., Mesquita et al. 2016), 8-10 (Shaw 1952, n=2, for Sauromalus obesus), 5-16, typically 6-8 (Rorabaugh and Lemos-Espinal 2016, Heimes 2022), max 16 (Grismer and Grismer 2022)
Naming and history
- Suborder
- Sauria
- Infraorder
- Pleurodonta
- Subspecies
- Sauromalus ater ater DUMÉRIL 1856 Sauromalus ater shawi CLIFF 1958 Sauromalus ater multiforaminatus (TANNER & AVERY 1964) Sauromalus ater townsendi DICKERSON 1919 Sauromalus ater tumidus SHAW 1945
- Described by
- Duméril
- Moved to another genus · since it was first described
- No
- Described in
- 1856
- Type locality
- Mexico
Keeping one
3 ft × 3 ft × 22.5 in(92 × 92 × 58 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 9 in (230 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 98–98 °F (36.4–36.9 °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.
51kJ per day
Worked out for an animal of 526 g, the heaviest recorded for Common 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 · nose to tail
- — Largest juvenile · shell length
- — Egg length
- — Egg width
- — Body mass · adult female, mean
- — Eats arthropods
- — Eats vertebrates
- — Eats plant matter
- — How the young develop
- — Hatchling length · smallest recorded
- — Hatchling length · largest recorded
- — 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
- — Red List criteria
- — Active in
- — Lowest it lives · above sea level
Others in Iguanidae
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). Sauromalus ater. Retrieved 2026-09-08, from https://www.allanglescreatures.com/species/sauromalus-ater
@misc{sauromalus_ater_2026,
title = {Sauromalus ater},
author = {{The Reptile & Amphibian Encyclopedia}},
year = {2026},
url = {https://www.allanglescreatures.com/species/sauromalus-ater}
}Sources
- Meiri, S. (2024). SquamBase — a database of squamate (Reptilia: Squamata) traits. Global Ecology and Biogeography. Public domain (CC0).
- AnAge, Human Ageing Genomic Resources (de Magalhães et al.), used under CC BY 3.0.
- 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.