GALLERIES > REPTILES AND HERPS > DESERT SPINY LIZARD [Sceloporus magister]
Location: UCR Botanical Gardens, Riverside, CAGPS: 34.0N, -117.3W, elev=1,223' MAP Date: March 5, 2016 ID : B13K1056 [4896 x 3264]
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Location: Galileo Hills, CAGPS: 35.2N, -117.8W, elev=2,953' MAP Date: May 9, 2009 ID : 7C2V7330 [3888 x 2592]
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Location: Vault Mine Trail, Madera Canyon, AZGPS: 31.7N, -110.9W, elev=6,387' MAP Date: July 20, 2008 ID : 1609 [3888 x 2592]
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Location: Vault Mine Trail, Madera Canyon, AZGPS: 31.7N, -110.9W, elev=6,387' MAP Date: July 20, 2008 ID : 7740 [3888 x 2592]
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SPECIES INFO
Sceloporus magister, also known as the twin-spotted spiny lizard or the desert spiny lizard, is a reptile endemic to the Sonoran Desert in Arizona. Desert spiny lizards eat insects and rarely, small plants.
The way the Desert spiny lizard stays warm like many desert lizards is by changing their color to be darker during cool times. To be absorbing more heat from the sun. Lighter during warm times so then reflecting more of the solar radiation (rays). The spiny lizard also camouflages in the places to not be seen easily.
Like all desert reptiles, the spiny lizard spends most of the day inactive in the burrows. Burrows are much cooler than the ground's surface.
The males have vivid ventral colorings that easily demarcate them from other species.
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