Reptilia · Squamata
Uromastyx disparHeyden, 1827
Sudan Mastigure
Photograph by Karim Haddad, CC BY, via iNaturalist
A ground-dwelling, day-active, plant-eating lizard from the Saharo-Sindian region, reaching 232 mm snout to vent.
Once published as Uromastyx flavifasciata, Uromastyx maliensis — those names reach this page.
Reptilia › Squamata › Agamidae › Uromastyx
- Grows to
- 232mm
- greatest recorded
- Eats
- Herbivorous
- Active
- Diurnal
- Lives up to
- 23years
Longer than 96% of all agamids 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 32 to 418 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
- Conservation status
- Least Concern
- Status assessed · the year the Red List last looked
- 2012
- Population trend
- Decreasing
The animal itself
- Limbs
- Four legs
- Venomous
- No
- Fangs
- None
- Longest recorded life
- 23years
Tacutu et al. 2013: 17, Moldowan et al. 2022 (19 y, 5 mo (known); Presumed wild-collected subadult, 23–25 y (estimated)
Size
- Length snout to vent · greatest recorded
- 232mm9.25 in
- Length snout to vent · adult female mean
- 212mm8.25 in
- Largest female · snout to vent
- 212mm8.25 in
- Body mass · greatestcomputed
- 455.9g1 lb
max 232 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
- Herbivorous
- Active
- Diurnal
- Where it lives
- Terrestrial
- Habitat
- Desert, Rocky, Shrubland
- Biome
- Deserts & Xeric Shrublands
- Region
- Saharo-Sindian
- Mainland or island
- Mainland
- Elevation · above sea level
- 180–700m
- Range size
- 4,718,245km²
(e.g., Spawls et al. 2023)/ plants and insects (Trape et al. 2012), mostly plants, occasionally invertebrates (del Marmol et al. 2019)
del Marmol et al. 2019, Spawls et al. 2023
e.g., Spawls et al. 2023
200-700 (del Marmol et al. 2019), 180-370 (Spawls et al. 2023)
Breeding
- Reproduction
- Oviparous
- Average clutch
- 17eggs
- Eggs or young per clutch
- 10–24eggs
- Clutches in a year
- 1per year
- Clutches a year
- 1per year
10-24 (Wilms 2005), 12-16 (Spawls et al. 2023)
Naming and history
- Suborder
- Sauria
- Infraorder
- Acrodontia
- Subspecies
- Uromastyx dispar dispar HEYDEN 1827 Uromastyx dispar flavifasciata MERTENS 1962 Uromastyx dispar hodhensis TRAPE, TRAPE & CHIRIO 2012 Uromastyx dispar maliensis JOGER & LAMBERT 1996
- Described by
- Heyden
- Moved to another genus · since it was first described
- No
- Described in
- 1827
- Type locality
- Sudan
Keeping one
3 ft 1 in × 3 ft 1 in × 23 in(93 × 93 × 58 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.
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 9.25 in (232 mm), at 4 × 4 × 2.5 times it, following the German federal welfare standard — how this is worked out.
No preferred body temperature has been recorded for Sudan Mastigure. Rather than repeat a number from a care sheet, this page leaves it out.
Feeding
Prey size does not apply. A herbivore's diet is judged on fibre, on the ratio of calcium to phosphorus, and on avoiding plants high in oxalates.
The animal does not take prey items. This is established practice, not a measurement.
45kJ per day
Worked out for an animal of 456 g, the heaviest recorded for Sudan Mastigure — 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 · snout to vent
- — 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 · adult female, mean
- — Body mass at hatching
- — Preferred body temperature · chosen in a laboratory gradient
- — Body temperature when active · measured in the wild
- — 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
- — 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
- — Body temp in the wild · lowest mean recorded
- — Body temp in the wild · highest mean recorded
- — Colour on the back
- — Pattern on the back
- — Pupil
- — Sex decided by
- — 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 Agamidae
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). Uromastyx dispar. Retrieved 2026-09-08, from https://www.allanglescreatures.com/species/uromastyx-dispar
@misc{uromastyx_dispar_2026,
title = {Uromastyx dispar},
author = {{The Reptile & Amphibian Encyclopedia}},
year = {2026},
url = {https://www.allanglescreatures.com/species/uromastyx-dispar}
}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.