Spotted this lizard on and in a pile of wood and scrap, on land owned by the Nature Conservancy in Travis CO., TX. He did not flee when spotted, instead he moved around on the pile, apparently sunning himself while keeping a safe distant from human observers.
SVL -4.5 cm
Found under a rock around 530 pm. Temps in the 60s, no clouds. Male
I found this lizard at 4:00pm in a pit fall trap I made that cuts off two halves of a junkyard. The junkyard is bordered by grassland on one side and a pecan grove on the other. The individual was a male with bright blue patches on his belly and was about 5.5cm SVL. It was sunny and felt to be about 75°F.
I saw this lizard on a railroad tie on a limestone outcrop by a wash where Lake Travis used to intrude at about 11:30am. There was full cloud cover and it felt to be about 70°F. Wind speed was about 10mph.
Lizard was hanging out on a rock wall next to a seep.
The North American genus Urosaurus (the Tree and Brush Lizards) belongs to the New World Iguanian family Phrynosomatidae. They can be distinguished from members of the genus Sceloporus by the presence of a gular (under neck) fold and granular lateral scales. They can be distinguished from members of the genus Uta by the presence of enlarged (sometimes only slightly) dorsal scales. It has been used as a model system in lizard life-history studies and populations produce...
