Xenosaurus mendozaiNieto-Montes de Oca, García-Vázquez, Zúñiga-Vega, Schmidt-Ballardo, 2013

No photograph of this species exists under a license anyone may reuse. It gets the same page regardless.

A rock-dwelling, day-active, meat-eating lizard from the Neotropic region, reaching 115 mm snout to vent.

No English name has been recorded for this species.

Reptilia › Squamata › Xenosauridae › Xenosaurus

Grows to: 115mm; greatest recorded
Eats: Carnivorous
Active: Diurnal
Lives: Saxicolous

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

The animal itself

Limbs: Four legs
Venomous: No
Fangs: None
Body temp in the wild · mean, when active: 20.6–23.4°C69–74 °F

Size

Length snout to vent · greatest recorded: 115mm4.5 in
Length snout to vent · adult female mean: 106.9mm4.25 in
Largest female · snout to vent: 106.9mm4.25 in
Hatchling length · snout to vent: 48.3mm2 in
Largest juvenile · snout to vent: 48.3mm2 in
Body mass · greatestcomputed: 33.55g1.2 oz
Body mass at hatchingmeasured: 2g0.07 oz

How it lives

Diet: Carnivorous
Active: Diurnal
Where it lives: Saxicolous
Biome: Tropical & Subtropical Coniferous Forests
Region: Neotropic
Mainland or island: Mainland
Elevation · above sea level: 1150–1390m
Range size: 2267km²

Breeding

Reproduction: Viviparous
Average clutch: 2.25eggs
Eggs or young per clutch: 1–4eggs
Mean clutch: 2.1–2.4eggs
Clutches a year: 0.5per year
First breeds at: 36months

Naming and history

Suborder: Sauria
Infraorder: Anguimoprha
Subspecies: No
Described by: Nieto-Montes de Oca, García-Vázquez, Zúñiga-Vega, Schmidt-Ballardo
Moved to another genus · since it was first described: No
Described in: 2013
Type locality: Mexico

Keeping one

18 in × 18 in × 11.5 in(46 × 46 × 29 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 4.5 in (115 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 Xenosaurus mendozai. Rather than repeat a number from a care sheet, this page leaves it out.

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.

4kJ per day

Worked out for an animal of 34 g, the heaviest recorded for Xenosaurus mendozai — 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
— Longest recorded life
— 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
— Clutches in a year
— 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
— Conservation status
— Status assessed · the year the Red List last looked
— Population trend
— Red List criteria
— Active season · shortest recorded
— Active season · longest recorded
— Density · lowest recorded
— Density · highest recorded
— Home range · largest recorded
— Habitat
— Active in

Others in Xenosauridae

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). Xenosaurus mendozai. Retrieved 2026-09-08, from https://www.allanglescreatures.com/species/xenosaurus-mendozai

@misc{xenosaurus_mendozai_2026,
  title  = {Xenosaurus mendozai},
  author = {{The Reptile & Amphibian Encyclopedia}},
  year   = {2026},
  url    = {https://www.allanglescreatures.com/species/xenosaurus-mendozai}
}

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.