Reptilia · Squamata
Sceloporus magisterHallowell, 1854
Desert Spiny Lizard
Photograph by Tom Kennedy, CC BY, via iNaturalist
A day-active, meat-eating lizard from the Nearctic region, reaching 142 mm snout to vent.
Also called Barred Spiny Lizard, Orange-headed Spiny Lizard, Purple-backed Spiny Lizard.
Once published as Sceloporus uniformis — those names reach this page.
Reptilia › Squamata › Phrynosomatidae › Sceloporus
- Grows to
- 142mm
- greatest recorded
- Eats
- Carnivorous
- Active
- Diurnal
- Lives up to
- 6years
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
45 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
- 6years
- Preferred body temperature · chosen in a laboratory gradientmeasured
- 34.5–34.9°C94–95 °F
- Body temperature when active · measured in the wild
- 34.8°C95 °F
- Body temp in the wild · mean, when active
- 32.8–36.8°C91–98 °F
Degenhardt et al. 1996: 6; Slavens and Slavens 1999: 5 and 10 months
mean body temperature of active individuals in nature
body temperature of active animals in nature
Size
- Length snout to vent · greatest recorded
- 142mm5.5 in
- Length snout to vent · adult female mean
- 93.3mm3.75 in
- Largest female · snout to vent
- 93.3mm3.75 in
- Hatchling length · snout to vent
- 32.5mm1.25 in
- Largest juvenile · snout to vent
- 32.5mm1.25 in
- Body mass · greatestcomputed
- 80.66g2.8 oz
- Body mass · a typical adult
- 35.21g1.2 oz
max 142 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
AnAge rates this record "acceptable"
How it lives
- Diet
- Carnivorous
- How it hunts
- Sit and wait
- Active
- Diurnal
- Where it lives
- Arboreal, saxicolous, terrestrial
- Habitat
- Desert, Forest, Rocky, Shrubland
- Biome
- Deserts & Xeric Shrublands
- Active season · months of the year
- 7–11months
- Region
- Nearctic
- Mainland or island
- Mainland
- Highest it lives · above sea level
- 1980m
- Range size
- 1,395,383km²
- Density
- 0.37–50per hectare
Omnivorous (Arthropods, lizards and occasionally plants - Stebbins 2003, Arthropods, lizards leaves and flowers - Grismer, see also Lemos-Espinal and Smith 2007, see also Rorabaugh and Lemos-Espinal 2016, insects and plants: Knowlton 1934), Arthropods and 5.6% plants (Pianka 1986, Van Denburgh 1922 also considered it primarily insectivorous), arthropods, sometimes flowers (Young 2011), mostly insects, also lizard hatchlings and bird nestlings (Heimes 2022)
e.g, Mesquita et al. 2016
e.g., Rorabaugh and Lemos-Espinal 2016 who write it "may be active at dusk or night following summer rains"
variable / arboreal (Mesquita et al. 2016, Olberding et al. 2016), mostly arboreal, also on rocks and on the ground (Heimes 2022)
to 5100ft (Young 2011), 0-1200 (Rorabaugh and Lemos-Espinal 2016), 0-1520 (Stebbins and McGinnis 2018), near sea level to 1200 (Heimes 2022)
Breeding
- Reproduction
- Oviparous
- Sex decided by
- Genes, XX/XY
- Average clutch
- 9.3eggs
- Eggs or young per clutch
- 2–19eggs
- Mean clutch
- 6.2–12.4eggs
- Clutches in a year
- 2per year
- Clutches a year
- 1–3per year
- First breeds at
- 21–36months
4-19 (Stebbins and McGinnis 2012), means 6.2-8.4 (Mesquita et al. 2016), 2-19 (Hibbitts and Hibbitts 2015), 4 (Shaw 1952, 7, 11, 11 & 18), Rorabaugh and Lemos-Espinal 2016 (3-19, mean 12.3), 2-12, mean 7 (Jimenez-Arcos et al. 2017), 3-19 (Heimes 2022), Dominguez-Guerrero et al. 2022 (mean 8),
Naming and history
- Suborder
- Sauria
- Infraorder
- Pleurodonta
- Subspecies
- Sceloporus magister cephaloflavus TANNER 1955 Sceloporus magister magister HALLOWELL 1854 Sceloporus magister montserratensis VAN DENBURGH & SLEVIN 1921 Sceloporus magister transversus PHELAN & BRATTSTROM 1955
- Described by
- Hallowell
- Moved to another genus · since it was first described
- No
- Described in
- 1854
- Type locality
- USA
Keeping one
22.5 in × 22.5 in × 22.5 in(57 × 57 × 57 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 5.5 in (142 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 94–95 °F (34.5–34.9 °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
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 81 g, the heaviest recorded for Desert 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 · adult female, mean
- — Body mass at hatching
- — 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
- — 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 magister. Retrieved 2026-09-08, from https://www.allanglescreatures.com/species/sceloporus-magister
@misc{sceloporus_magister_2026,
title = {Sceloporus magister},
author = {{The Reptile & Amphibian Encyclopedia}},
year = {2026},
url = {https://www.allanglescreatures.com/species/sceloporus-magister}
}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.
- AnAge, Human Ageing Genomic Resources (de Magalhães et al.), used under CC BY 3.0.