Reptilia · Squamata
Urosaurus ornatusBaird & Girard, 1852
Tree Lizard
Photograph by Clay Gibbons, CC BY, via iNaturalist
A day-active, meat-eating lizard from the Nearctic region, reaching 69 mm snout to vent.
Once published as Uta lateralis, Uta levis, Uta wrighti — those names reach this page.
Reptilia › Squamata › Phrynosomatidae › Urosaurus
- Grows to
- 69mm
- greatest recorded
- Eats
- Carnivorous
- Active
- Diurnal
- Lives up to
- 3years
Longer than only 24% 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
- 3years
- Preferred body temperature · chosen in a laboratory gradientmeasured
- 33.1–38°C92–100 °F
- Body temperature when active · measured in the wild
- 35.6°C96 °F
- Body temp in the wild · mean, when active
- 34.4–36.8°C94–98 °F
Tinkle and Dunham 1983: 3
mean body temperature of active individuals in nature
body temperature of active animals in nature
Size
- Length snout to vent · greatest recorded
- 69mm2.75 in
- Length snout to vent · adult female mean
- 46.2mm1.75 in
- Largest female · snout to vent
- 46.2mm1.75 in
- Hatchling length · snout to vent
- 20.75mm0.8 in
- Largest juvenile · snout to vent
- 20.8mm0.8 in
- Body mass · greatestcomputed
- 11.68g0.41 oz
- Body mass at hatchingmeasured
- 0.4g0.01 oz
max 69 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
- Arboreal, saxicolous
- Habitat
- Desert, Forest, Rocky, Shrubland
- Biome
- Deserts & Xeric Shrublands
- Active season · months of the year
- 7–12months
- Region
- Nearctic
- Mainland or island
- Mainland
- Highest it lives · above sea level
- 2770m
- Range size
- 1,685,541km²
- Density
- 19.6–251per hectare
- Home range · largest recorded
- 154m2
Arthropods (e.g., Rorabaugh and Lemos-Espinal 2016, Stebbins and McGinnis 2018, Heimes 2022)
e.g., Mesquita et al. 2016, Lemos-Espinal et al. 2013, Butler 2005, Rorabaugh and Lemos-Espinal 2016, Heimes 2022
e.g., Gadsden et al. 2021; heliothermic, Rorabaugh and Lemos-Espinal 2016
Saxicolous and Arboreal (e.g., Mesquita et al. 2016, Hibbitts and Hibbitts 2015, Gadsden et al. 2021, Heimes 2022)/ mainly terrestrial (Hardy and McDiarmid 1969) / saxicolous, scansorial, not terrestrial (Lemos-Espinal and Smith 2007) /arboreal (Olberding et al. 2016)/mostly arboreal, also saxicolous (Rorabaugh and Lemos-Espinal 2016)
939-1775 (Lemos-Espinal et al. 2013), to 8000ft (Young 2011), 0-2770 (Stebbins and McGinnis 2018, Gadsden et al. 2021), max 2036 in Mexico (Heimes 2022)
Breeding
- Reproduction
- Oviparous
- Average clutch
- 7.4eggs
- Eggs or young per clutch
- 2–16eggs
- Mean clutch
- 3.9–10.9eggs
- Clutches in a year
- 3.5per year
- Clutches a year
- 1–6per year
- First breeds at
- 8.5–12months
2-16 (Jones and Lovich 2009, Hibbitts and Hibbitts 2015, Lemos-Espinal et al. 2013, Stebbins and McGinnis 2018, Heimes 2022), 2-7 (Stebbins and McGinnis 2012), 6-13, mean 8.6 (Goldberg 2013, Rorabaugh and Lemos-Espinal 2016), mean 7.1, max 13, but mean of 4.7 in another study (Tinkle and Dunham 1983), Gates 1963" 6-10, mean 7.6, menas 4.7-9 (Mesquita et al. 2016), 2-12, Mean 7.25 (Jimenez-Arcos et al. 2017), Dominguez-Guerrero et al. 2022 (mean 4.7)
Naming and history
- Suborder
- Sauria
- Infraorder
- Pleurodonta
- Subspecies
- Urosaurus ornatus ornatus (BAIRD & GIRARD 1852) Urosaurus ornatus caeruleus (SMITH 1935) Urosaurus ornatus chiricahuae (MITTLEMAN 1941) Urosaurus ornatus lateralis (BOULENGER 1883) Urosaurus ornatus levis (STEJNEGER 1890) Urosaurus ornatus linearis (BAIRD 1859) Urosaurus ornatus schmidti (MITTLEMAN 1940) Urosaurus ornatus schottii (BAIRD 1859) Urosaurus ornatus symmetricus (BAIRD 1859) Urosaurus ornatus wrighti (SCHMIDT 1921)
- Described by
- Baird & Girard
- Moved to another genus · since it was first described
- Yes
- Described in
- 1852
- Type locality
- USA
Keeping one
11 in × 11 in × 11 in(28 × 28 × 28 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 2.75 in (69 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 92–100 °F (33.1–38 °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.
2kJ per day
Worked out for an animal of 12 g, the heaviest recorded for Tree 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.
Morphs
1 with peer-reviewed genetics behind them, 0 resting on breeder consensus. Most references present both with the same confidence.
- Skin colourpeer reviewed
- Territorial status is explained by covariation between boldness, exploration, and thermal preference in a colour polymorphic lizard. — Ecol Evol 2024
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
- — Sex decided by
- — Red List criteria
- — 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). Urosaurus ornatus. Retrieved 2026-09-08, from https://www.allanglescreatures.com/species/urosaurus-ornatus
@misc{urosaurus_ornatus_2026,
title = {Urosaurus ornatus},
author = {{The Reptile & Amphibian Encyclopedia}},
year = {2026},
url = {https://www.allanglescreatures.com/species/urosaurus-ornatus}
}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.