Photos01 Oct 2007 04:32 pm

Anyone know what type of lizard this is? Usually we just have little geckos or chameleons, but a couple of years ago this bad boy showed up.
I don’t know if this is the same one; I’ve no idea how long lizards of that size live.
Could it be a pet someone released? I’m curious.
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October 1st, 2007 at 8:55 pm
It almost looks like a bearded dragon, but those aren’t native to the US, so if that’s what it is, it’s definitely a released pet. Kind of hard to get a feel for the size in that pic though.
You might also look for info on the genus “Sceloporus” - that’s one of the most common groups of lizards in the US, and some of the species do get kind of big - it’s hard to tell in the picture exactly what’s going on with the scales, but if they’re flat rather than ridged, that might be a Sceloporus of some sort.
October 1st, 2007 at 11:30 pm
I’ll have to look up bearded dragon, but I’d guess this guy is too small for that. He’s maybe half a foot altogether? I’m terrible at estimating those sorts of things.
I googled Sceloporus, and you might definitely be onto something there. No blue on this guy anywhere, but one page I read said they don’t have it as juveniles. I’ll have to do a bit more reading on them. It would make sense, they would be native to here.
He’s definitely a lot larger than our garden variety geckos — and those teeny, tiny transparent lizards!
Next I ought to take a photo of the huge spider we recently discovered in the backyard . . .
Thanks!
October 2nd, 2007 at 10:59 pm
Yeah, 6 inches head to tail would be very small for a beardie. So most likely a Sceloporus of some sort. Many of the species of males only get blue on the belly when they’re full adult, and many of the females don’t get it at all. And 6 inches full length sounds about right for the larger of that genus. Maybe this guy? http://www.zo.utexas.edu/research/txherps/lizards/sceloporus.olivaceus.html