Reptilia · Squamata
Sceloporus spinosusWiegmann, 1828
Eastern Spiny Lizard
Photograph by Tom Kennedy, CC BY, via iNaturalist
A day-active, meat-eating lizard from the Neotropic region, reaching 126 mm snout to vent.
Also called Blue-spotted Spiny Lizard, Miahuatlán Spiny Lizard.
Reptilia › Squamata › Phrynosomatidae › Sceloporus
- Grows to
- 126mm
- greatest recorded
- Eats
- Carnivorous
- Active
- Diurnal
- Lives
- Arboreal, saxicolous, terrestrial
Longer than 93% 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
41 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
- 31.8°C
- Body temperature when active · measured in the wild
- 33.5°C92 °F
- Body temp in the wild · mean, when active
- 31.3–33.5°C88–92 °F
mean body temperature of active individuals in nature
body temperature of active animals in nature
Size
- Length snout to vent · greatest recorded
- 126mm5 in
- Length snout to vent · adult female mean
- 85.3mm3.25 in
- Largest female · snout to vent
- 82.3mm3.25 in
- Hatchling length · snout to vent
- 26.65mm1 in
- Largest juvenile · snout to vent
- 26.7mm1 in
- Body mass · greatestcomputed
- 58.57g2.1 oz
- Body mass · adult female, meanmeasured
- 29.2g1 oz
- Body mass at hatchingmeasured
- 0.86g0.03 oz
max 126 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
- Active foraging
- Active
- Diurnal
- Where it lives
- Arboreal, saxicolous, terrestrial
- Habitat
- Forest
- Biome
- Deserts & Xeric Shrublands
- Region
- Neotropic
- Mainland or island
- Mainland
- Elevation · above sea level
- 700–3030m
- Range size
- 304,254km²
insects (Dixon and Lemos-Espinal 2010, Lemos-Espinal and Dixon 2013), juvenile snake (Hidalgo-Licona et al. 2016), insects and other invertebrates (Ramirez-Bautista et al. 2014), arthropods (Heimes 2022)
Active (Hernandez-Salinas et al. 2023)
Arboreal / Terrestrial and Saxicolous (Smith 1939) / terrestrial and arboreal (Hidalgo-Licona et al. 2016)/saxicolous (Leyte-Manrique et al. 2019) / arboreal and saxicolous (Barragan et al. 2020), "terrestrial, saxicolous, and occasionally arboreal habits"
1570-2300 (Ramirez-Bautista et al. 2014), 1600-2700 (Barragan et al. 2020), 700-2650 (Heimes 2022), de la Vega-Perez et al. 2022 (1300-2543 in the literature, their specimens from 3030), I had 4000 from somewhere…
Breeding
- Reproduction
- Oviparous
- Sex decided by
- Genes, XX/XY
- Average clutch
- 13.85eggs
- Eggs or young per clutch
- 6–31eggs
- Mean clutch
- 9.2–18.5eggs
- Clutches a year
- 1–2per year
e.g., Lemos-Espinal and Dixon 2013, Ramirez-Bautista et al. 2014
7-28, mean 17.5, but other reported means as low as 9.2, Ramirez-Bautista et al. 2012, 8-31, mean 18.5 (Ramirez-Bautista et al. 2014, Barragan et al. 2020), Zuniga-Vega et al. 2016 (mean 15), 6-22, means 12.8-14.1 (Jimenez-Arcos et al. 2017), 8-30 (Heimes 2022) , Dominguez-Guerrero et al. 2022 (means 11.5-12.9), Cruz-Elizalde et al. 2022b (17.3 ± 1.6 range 7.0–43.0, n = 27, the maximum I so far have is 31 so I do not list 43 until further verification)
Naming and history
- Suborder
- Sauria
- Infraorder
- Pleurodonta
- Subspecies
- Sceloporus spinosus apicalis SMITH & SMITH 1951 Sceloporus spinosus caeruleopunctatus SMITH 1938 Sceloporus spinosus spinosus WIEGMANN 1828
- Described by
- Wiegmann
- Moved to another genus · since it was first described
- No
- Described in
- 1828
- Type locality
- Mexico
Keeping one
20 in × 20 in × 20 in(50 × 50 × 50 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 in (126 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 89 °F (31.8 °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.
7kJ per day
Worked out for an animal of 59 g, the heaviest recorded for Eastern 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
- — Longest recorded life
- — Eats arthropods
- — Eats vertebrates
- — Eats plant matter
- — How the young develop
- — Gestation or incubation
- — Clutches in a year
- — First breeds from · youngest recorded
- — First breeds by · oldest recorded
- — 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 season · shortest recorded
- — Active season · longest recorded
- — Density · lowest recorded
- — Density · highest recorded
- — Home range · largest recorded
- — 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 spinosus. Retrieved 2026-09-08, from https://www.allanglescreatures.com/species/sceloporus-spinosus
@misc{sceloporus_spinosus_2026,
title = {Sceloporus spinosus},
author = {{The Reptile & Amphibian Encyclopedia}},
year = {2026},
url = {https://www.allanglescreatures.com/species/sceloporus-spinosus}
}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.