Reptilia · Squamata
Sceloporus gadsdeniCastañeda-Gaytán & Díaz-Cárdenas, 2017
Lagoon Spiny Lizard
No photograph of this species exists under a license anyone may reuse. It gets the same page regardless.
A rock-dwelling, day-active lizard from the Nearctic region, reaching 81 mm snout to vent.
Reptilia › Squamata › Phrynosomatidae › Sceloporus
- Grows to
- 81mm
- greatest recorded
- Active
- Diurnal
- Lives
- Saxicolous
- Weighs up to
- 17.95g
- greatest
Longer than only 47% 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
33 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
The animal itself
- Limbs
- Four legs
- Venomous
- No
- Fangs
- None
- Preferred body temperature · chosen in a laboratory gradientmeasured
- 32.7°C
- Body temp in the wild · mean, when active
- 32.1°C
body temperature of active animals in nature
Size
- Length snout to vent · greatest recorded
- 81mm3.25 in
- Length snout to vent · adult female mean
- 68.4mm2.75 in
- Largest female · snout to vent
- 73.3mm3 in
- Hatchling length · snout to vent
- 27mm1 in
- Body mass · greatestcomputed
- 17.95g0.63 oz
- Body mass · adult female, meanmeasured
- 5.44g0.19 oz
max 81 mm (e.g., Heimes 2022)
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
- Active
- Diurnal
- Where it lives
- Saxicolous
- Biome
- Deserts & Xeric Shrublands
- Active season · months of the year
- 8months
- Region
- Nearctic
- Mainland or island
- Mainland
- Elevation · above sea level
- 1100–1500m
- Range size
- 73km²
- Density
- 29–184per hectare
Gadsden et al. 2018
"this species inhabits rock walls, boulders and canyons." (Diaz-Cardenas et al. 2017), saxicolous (Gadsden et al. 2018, Heimes 2022)
1169 (Diaz-Cardenas et al. 2017), 1146 (Gadsden et al. 2018), 1100-1500 (Heimes 2022)
Breeding
- Reproduction
- Viviparous
- Average clutch
- 7eggs
- Eggs or young per clutch
- 7eggs
- Clutches a year
- 1per year
- First breeds at
- 13months
Gadsden et al. 2018; n=1, also Heimes 2022, Dominguez-Guerrero et al. 2022
Naming and history
- Suborder
- Sauria
- Infraorder
- Pleurodonta
- Subspecies
- No
- Described by
- Castañeda-Gaytán & Díaz-Cárdenas
- Moved to another genus · since it was first described
- No
- Described in
- 2017
- Type locality
- Mexico
Keeping one
13 in × 13 in × 8 in(32 × 32 × 20 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 3.25 in (81 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 91 °F (32.7 °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
3kJ per day
Worked out for an animal of 18 g, the heaviest recorded for Lagoon 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 · snout to vent
- — Largest juvenile · shell length
- — Egg length
- — Egg width
- — Body mass · a typical adult
- — Body mass at hatching
- — Longest recorded life
- — Body temperature when active · measured in the wild
- — Diet
- — Eats arthropods
- — Eats vertebrates
- — Eats plant matter
- — How it hunts
- — How the young develop
- — Gestation or incubation
- — Mean clutch · smallest reported
- — Mean clutch · largest reported
- — 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
- — Sex decided by
- — Conservation status
- — Status assessed · the year the Red List last looked
- — Population trend
- — Red List criteria
- — Home range · largest recorded
- — Habitat
- — Active in
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 gadsdeni. Retrieved 2026-09-08, from https://www.allanglescreatures.com/species/sceloporus-gadsdeni
@misc{sceloporus_gadsdeni_2026,
title = {Sceloporus gadsdeni},
author = {{The Reptile & Amphibian Encyclopedia}},
year = {2026},
url = {https://www.allanglescreatures.com/species/sceloporus-gadsdeni}
}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.