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Electronic Field Guide to the
Reptiles and Amphibians of
Southern California
Available Now at the
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Adult male, San Diego County |
Adult male, San Diego County |
Adult male, San Diego County |
Adult male, San Diego County |
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Adult female, San Diego County |
Gravid adult female, showing orange coloring on head, San Diego County |
Gravid adult female, San Diego County |
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Adult, San Diego County |
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Adult male, San Diego County |
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| Adult, San Diego County |
Adult, San Diego County |
Hatchling, late September, San Diego County |
Adult, San Diego County |
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| Adult, San Diego Couty |
Adult, San Diego Couty |
Adult, San Diego Couty |
Adult, Imperial Diego Couty |
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| Adult female with breeding colors, Imperial County. © Stuart Young |
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Adult, basking in and out of the sun on a Winter day in San Diego County |
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Habitat |
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| Habitat, Imperial County. Mearns' Rock Lizards tend to prefer massive rock outcrops such as these. |
Habitat, San Diego County |
Habitat, San Diego County |
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Habitat, San Diego County |
Habitat, San Diego County |
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Short Videos |
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| An adult rock lizard shows its rock climbing and jumping acrobatics, finally doing a defensive push-up display, then a juvenile lizard crawls around the face of a massive rock. |
Mearns' Rock Lizards in the San Diego county desert. |
Mearns' Rock Lizards on their rocks including one spotted at night. |
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| Description |
Size |
| 2.75 - 4.5 inches from snout to vent (6.6 - 10.6 cm). (Stebbins 2003) |
| Appearance |
A medium-sized flat bodied lizard with a conspicuous narrow black collar around the neck (not bordered in white), and a long thin prominently banded tail which can grow back if detached. Wavy dark crossbars mark the back, but sometimes these are very faint. Scales are granular except on the legs and the tail where they are strongly keeled.
Color is olive, brown, or grayish with many small white or bluish spots. The underside is pale with some bluish color on the sides. The throat is dark and marked with whitish spots. Males have a more pronounced pattern and more blue coloring on the throat than females, and enlarged postanal scales. Females develop orange on the throat and above the eyes when they are gravid.
Melanistic lizards occur in the Mountain Springs area. (Lemm 2006) |
| Behavior & Natural History |
| Diurnal, and sometimes crepuscular. Most activity is probably from March into early Fall, but they may come out during warm periods at any time of year. Remains dormant in rock crevices during cold temperatures. Most active in the early morning during hot periods. An excellent climber, able to scale nearly vertical rocks and even run upside down among the rocks. Escapes from a pursuer by running to the opposite side of a rock. Will bite when handled. Males are territorial and defend their territories by bobbing their head up and down. |
| Diet |
| Eats a variety of small invertebrates, ants, beetles, flies, caterpillars, spiders, etc. along with flower buds and blossoms, and occasionally small lizards. |
| Reproduction |
| Breeding takes place in the spring. 2 - 6 eggs are laid June - August and hatch in two months. |
| Range |
| Ranges from San Gorgonio Pass south along the east side of the Peninsular Range mountains south into the northern third of Baja California. Near sea level to around 3,600 ft. )1,100 m). (Stebbins 2003) |
| Habitat |
| Associated with large rocks in shady, narrower parts of canyons, on the desert slopes of mountains. Most common among massive rocks and high rocky cliffs and washes, palm oases, and desert flats where there are large rock outcrops. |
| Taxonomic Notes |
| Two subspecies are still recognized by the S.S.A.R. - P. m. mearnsi and P. m. slevini, (which occurs on two islands in the Gulf of California) however Grismer elevated P. m. slevini to full species status in 1999. (Grismer, L. Lee. 1999. An evolutionary classification of reptiles on islands in the Gulf of California, México. Herpetologica 55 (4): 446-469) |
| Conservation Issues (Conservation Status) |
| None. |
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Taxonomy |
| Family |
Phrynosomatidae |
Zebra-tailed, Earless, Fringe-toed, Spiny, Tree, Side-blotched, and Horned Lizards |
| Genus |
Petrosaurus |
California Rock Lizards |
| Species |
mearnsi |
Banded Rock Lizard |
Subspecies
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mearnsi |
Mearns' Rock Lizard |
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Original Description |
Petrosaurus mearnsi - (Stejneger, 1894) - Proc. U.S. Natl. Mus., Vol. 17, p. 589
from Original Description Citations for the Reptiles and Amphibians of North America © Ellin Beltz
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Meaning of the Scientific Name |
Petrosaurus - Greek - petra - rock and sauros - lizard refers to this lizrd's habitat
mearnsi - honors Mearns, Edgar A.
from Scientific and Common Names of the Reptiles and Amphibians of North America - Explained © Ellin Beltz
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Alternate Names |
Petrosaurus mearnsi - Banded Rock Lizard (no subspecies recognized)
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Related or Similar California Lizards |
Baja Collared Lizard
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More Information and References |
Natureserve Explorer
California Dept. of Fish and Game
Stebbins, Robert C., and McGinnis, Samuel M. Field Guide to Amphibians and Reptiles of California: Revised Edition (California Natural History Guides) University of California Press, 2012.
Stebbins, Robert C. California Amphibians and Reptiles. The University of California Press, 1972.
Stebbins, Robert C. A Field Guide to Western Reptiles and Amphibians. 3rd Edition. Houghton Mifflin Company, 2003.
Behler, John L., and F. Wayne King. The Audubon Society Field Guide to North American Reptiles and Amphibians. Alfred A. Knopf, 1992.
Powell, Robert., Joseph T. Collins, and Errol D. Hooper Jr. A Key to Amphibians and Reptiles of the Continental United States and Canada. The University Press of Kansas, 1998.
Bartlett, R. D. & Patricia P. Bartlett. Guide and Reference to the Turtles and Lizards of Western North America (North of Mexico) and Hawaii. University Press of Florida, 2009.
Jones, Lawrence, Rob Lovich, editors. Lizards of the American Southwest: A Photographic Field Guide. Rio Nuevo Publishers, 2009.
Smith, Hobart M. Handbook of Lizards, Lizards of the United States and of Canada. Cornell University Press, 1946.
Grismer, L. Lee. Amphibians and Reptiles of Baja California, Including Its Pacific Islands and the Islands in the Sea of Cortés. The University of California Press, 2002.
McPeak, Ron H. Amphibians and Reptiles of Baja California. Sea Challengers, 2000.
Lemm, Jeffrey. Field Guide to Amphibians and Reptiles of the San Diego Region (California Natural History Guides). University of California Press, 2006.
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The following status listings come from the Special Animals List which is published by the California Department of Fish and Wildlife.
This animal is not included on the Special Animals List, which indicates that there are no significant conservation concerns for it in California.
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Organization
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Status Listing
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| U.S. Endangered Species Act (ESA) |
None |
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| California Endangered Species Act (CESA) |
None |
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| California Department of Fish and Wildlife |
None |
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| Bureau of Land Management |
None |
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| USDA Forest Service |
None |
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| Natureserve Global Conservation Status Ranks |
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World Conservation Union - IUCN Red List
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