Reptilia · Squamata
Sceloporus jarroviiCope, 1875
Yarrow's Spiny Lizard
Photograph by Francisco Martínez González, CC BY-SA, via iNaturalist
A rock-dwelling, day-active, meat-eating lizard from the Nearctic region, reaching 106 mm snout to vent.
Also called Blue-spotted Spiny Lizard, Lined Spiny Lizard, Zempoala Bar-bellied Lizard.
Once published as Sceloporus jarrovi, Sceloporus lineolateralis — those names reach this page.
Reptilia › Squamata › Phrynosomatidae › Sceloporus
- Grows to
- 106mm
- greatest recorded
- Eats
- Carnivorous
- Active
- Diurnal
- Lives up to
- 3.8years
Longer than 76% 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
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
- 2007
- Population trend
- Stable
The animal itself
- Limbs
- Four legs
- Venomous
- No
- Fangs
- None
- Longest recorded life
- 3.8years
- Preferred body temperature · chosen in a laboratory gradientmeasured
- 32.1–34.4°C90–94 °F
- Body temperature when active · measured in the wild
- 32.35°C90 °F
- Body temp in the wild · mean, when active
- 29.3–35.6°C85–96 °F
Slavens and Slavens 1999: 2.5; Pianka and Parker 1975: 2.8, Gadsden and Estrada-Rodriguez 2008: minimum 3.8 years (nature)
mean body temperature of active individuals in nature
body temperature of active animals in nature
Size
- Length snout to vent · greatest recorded
- 106mm4.25 in
- Length snout to vent · adult female mean
- 70mm2.75 in
- Largest female · snout to vent
- 73.4mm3 in
- Hatchling length · snout to vent
- 27.5mm1 in
- Largest juvenile · snout to vent
- 28.5mm1 in
- Body mass · greatestcomputed
- 36.88g1.3 oz
- Body mass at hatchingmeasured
- 0.5g0.02 oz
max 106 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
- Diet
- Carnivorous
- How it hunts
- Sit and wait
- Active
- Diurnal
- Where it lives
- Saxicolous
- Habitat
- Forest, Rocky
- Biome
- Deserts & Xeric Shrublands
- Active season · months of the year
- 6–12months
- Region
- Nearctic
- Mainland or island
- Mainland
- Elevation · above sea level
- 800–3550m
- Range size
- 532,182km²
- Density
- 24–233per hectare
- Home range · largest recorded
- 3181m2
Arthropods (e.g., Stebbins and McGinnis 2018, Heimes 2022)/ insects (Rorabaugh and Lemos-Espinal 2016)
e.g, Mesquita et al. 2016, Lemos-Espinal et al. 2013, Butler 2005, Rorabaugh and Lemos-Espinal 2016
e.g., Lemos-Espinal et al. 2013, Rorabaugh and Lemos-Espinal 2016
(Perry and Garland 2002, Stebbins 2003, Herrel et al. 2002, Fitch 1978, Axtell and Axtell 1971, Mesquita et al. 2016, Olberding et al. 2016), saxicolous, occasionally climbs trees (Stebbins and McGinnis 2018)
1425-3050 (Gadsden and Estrada-Rodriguez 2007), 1370-3550 (Stebbins and McGinnis 2018), 800-3550 (Heimes 2022)
Breeding
- Reproduction
- Viviparous
- Sex decided by
- Genes, XX/XY
- Average clutch
- 6.7eggs
- Eggs or young per clutch
- 2–16eggs
- Mean clutch
- 4.9–8.4eggs
- Clutches in a year
- 1per year
- Clutches a year
- 1per year
- First breeds at
- 4–16months
means 5.6-8.4 (Mesquita et al. 2016), 2-14 (Lemos-Espinal et al. 2013, Rorabaugh and Lemos-Espinal 2016, Stebbins and McGinnis 2018, Heimes 2022), 2-16, mean 7.35 (Jimenez-Arcos et al. 2017), Lopez-Alcaide et al. 2020 (mean 4.9), Dominguez-Guerrero et al. 2022 (mean 5.7),
Naming and history
- Suborder
- Sauria
- Infraorder
- Pleurodonta
- Subspecies
- Sceloporus jarrovii jarrovii COPE 1875 Sceloporus jarrovii lineolateralis SMITH 1936
- Described by
- Cope
- Moved to another genus · since it was first described
- No
- Described in
- 1875
- Type locality
- Mexico
Keeping one
16.5 in × 16.5 in × 10.5 in(42 × 42 × 27 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 (106 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 90–94 °F (32.1–34.4 °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.
5kJ per day
Worked out for an animal of 37 g, the heaviest recorded for Yarrow'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
- — 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
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 jarrovii. Retrieved 2026-09-08, from https://www.allanglescreatures.com/species/sceloporus-jarrovii
@misc{sceloporus_jarrovii_2026,
title = {Sceloporus jarrovii},
author = {{The Reptile & Amphibian Encyclopedia}},
year = {2026},
url = {https://www.allanglescreatures.com/species/sceloporus-jarrovii}
}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.