Reptilia · Squamata
Sceloporus clarkiiBaird & Girard, 1852
Clark's Spiny Lizard
Photograph by Tom Kennedy, CC BY, via iNaturalist
A day-active, meat-eating lizard from the Nearctic region, reaching 144 mm snout to vent.
Also called Sonoran Spiny Lizard, Southern Clark’s Lizard, Stejneger’s Spiny Lizard.
Reptilia › Squamata › Phrynosomatidae › Sceloporus
- Grows to
- 144mm
- greatest recorded
- Eats
- Carnivorous
- Active
- Diurnal
- Lives
- Arboreal, saxicolous
Longer than 98% of all species in Phrynosomatidae 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 47 to 175 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
- 2007
- Population trend
- Stable
The animal itself
- Limbs
- Four legs
- Venomous
- No
- Fangs
- None
- Preferred body temperature · chosen in a laboratory gradientmeasured
- 35°C
- Body temperature when active · measured in the wild
- 33.85°C93 °F
- Body temp in the wild · mean, when active
- 33.7–34°C93–93 °F
mean body temperature of active individuals in nature
body temperature of active animals in nature
Size
- Length snout to vent · greatest recorded
- 144mm5.75 in
- Length snout to vent · adult female mean
- 92.3mm3.75 in
- Largest female · snout to vent
- 92.3mm3.75 in
- Hatchling length · snout to vent
- 30.5mm1.25 in
- Largest juvenile · snout to vent
- 30.5mm1.25 in
- Body mass · greatestcomputed
- 83.74g3 oz
- Body mass at hatchingmeasured
- 0.5g0.02 oz
max 144 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
- Carnivorous
- How it hunts
- Sit and wait
- Active
- Diurnal
- Where it lives
- Arboreal, saxicolous
- Habitat
- Forest
- Biome
- Deserts & Xeric Shrublands
- Active season · months of the year
- 6–11months
- Region
- Nearctic
- Mainland or island
- Mainland
- Highest it lives · above sea level
- 1860m
- Range size
- 457,350km²
- Density
- 6–46per hectare
Omnivorous (Stebbins 2003, Grismer 2002), 6.2% ants (Bergmann et al. 2009), invertebrates, occasionally leaves buds and flowers (Jones and Lovich 2009, Stebbins and McGinnis 2018), almost entierly insects (Lemos-Espinal et al. 2013), arthropods, insular populations take fruit, almost entirely arthropods, blossoms in some populations (Heimes 2022)
e.g, Mesquita et al. 2016, Butler 2005
mostly, Rorabaugh and Lemos-Espinal 2016, Heimes 2022
Arboreal and Saxicolous, mostly arboreal, also ground and rocks (Rorabaugh 2008, Rorabaugh and Lemos-Espinal 2016), arboreal (Mesquita et al. 2016, Olberding et al. 2016), primarily arboreal, also saxicolous (Heimes 2022)
0-1848 (Lemos-Espinal et al. 2013), near sea level to 1860 (Rorabaugh and Lemos-Espinal 2016), near sea level to 1560 (Heimes 2022)
Breeding
- Reproduction
- Oviparous
- Sex decided by
- Genes, XX/XY
- Average clutch
- 13.8eggs
- Eggs or young per clutch
- 1–28eggs
- Mean clutch
- 8–19.6eggs
- Clutches a year
- 1–2per year
- First breeds at
- 22months
19.6 (Charnov et al. 2007), mean 19.5 (Mesquita et al. 2016), 7-28 (Lemos-Espinal et al. 2013, Rorabaugh and Lemos-Espinal 2016, Heimes 2022), 1-24, mean 10.85 (Jimenez-Arcos et al. 2017), 4-24 (Stebbins and McGinnis 2018), Dominguez-Guerrero et al. 2022 (mean 11.6),
Naming and history
- Suborder
- Sauria
- Infraorder
- Pleurodonta
- Subspecies
- Sceloporus clarkii boulengeri STEJNEGER 1893 Sceloporus clarkii clarkii BAIRD & GIRARD 1852 Sceloporus clarkii vallaris SHANNON & URBANO 1954
- Described by
- Baird & Girard
- Moved to another genus · since it was first described
- No
- Described in
- 1852
- Type locality
- Mexico
Keeping one
22.5 in × 22.5 in × 22.5 in(58 × 58 × 58 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 5.75 in (144 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 95 °F (35 °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.
10kJ per day
Worked out for an animal of 84 g, the heaviest recorded for Clark's Spiny 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
- — 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
- — Red List criteria
- — Home range · largest recorded
- — Active in
- — Lowest it lives · above sea level
Others in Phrynosomatidae
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). Sceloporus clarkii. Retrieved 2026-09-08, from https://www.allanglescreatures.com/species/sceloporus-clarkii
@misc{sceloporus_clarkii_2026,
title = {Sceloporus clarkii},
author = {{The Reptile & Amphibian Encyclopedia}},
year = {2026},
url = {https://www.allanglescreatures.com/species/sceloporus-clarkii}
}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.