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Adult male, San Bernardino County |
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Adult male, San Bernardino County
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Closed eye showing fringed eyelids |
Adult male, San Bernardino County
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Fringes on rear of toes |
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Footprints left by the lizard shown above in the top row as it quickly ran away. |
Habitat, low dunes, San Bernardino County |
Habitat, low, wind-blown sandy wash, San Bernardino County
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Habitat, massive sand dunes, San Bernardino County
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Close-up of part of the dunes shown to the left, San Bernardino County
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Sign, San Bernardino County |
Short Videos
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Watch a lizard bury itself in the sand to hide. This lizard was captive and sluggish and buries itself slowly and incompletely. In the wild a lizard runs quickly then dissapears in a flash as it dives into the sand.
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Watch this llizard run quickly over the sand to escape. It almost escaped the camera... |
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| Description |
| Size |
| 2 3/4 to 4 1/5 inches long from snout to vent (7 - 11.4 cm). (Stebbins 2003) The tail is about the same length as the body. |
| Appearance |
A medium-sized, flat-bodied, smooth-skinned lizard that inhabits areas of loose sand. Color is white or grayish, with a contrasting pattern of black blotches and eye-like spots. Black blotches do not form broken lengthwise lines. The color and pattern create a successful camouflage which allows a lizard to blend into its sandy habitat.
The underside is pale with black bars on the underside of the tail. Males have a conspicuous black spot on the sides of the belly, dark crescent-shaped lines on the throat, and enlarged postanal scales. During the breeding season, there is a greenish wash on the belly with pink on the sides of the body. |
| Behavior and Natural History |
Diurnal. Adapted to living in areas with fine windblown sand. A fringe of scales on the sides of the toes help this lizard run quickly over fine sand, preventing them from sinking, similar to the effect of wearing snowshoes. Scales are granular and very small, which helps a lizard bury itself quickly in fine sand. A countersunk lower jaw, eyelids that overlap, flaps over the ears, and nostrils and nasal passages which work like valves, all prevent sand from getting into a lizard's orifices and lungs.
Takes cover in the sand to avoid extreme temperatures. Commonly sleeps in the sand under a bush at night. The parietal eye, an eye-like structure on top of the head, is thought to help this lizard monitor the amount of solar radiation it receives to help it avoid too much or too little heat. On waking in the morning, a lizard often basks with just the head above the sand until its body temperature warms sufficiently to allow it to unbury the entire body and continue basking or begin activity.
Goes underground in the sand or in a burrow in the fall, and emerges in late winter. Young lizards may go under later and emerge earlier or even remain active all year.
When scared, this lizard will run very quickly on its hind legs to the opposite side of a bush or a small sand hill, and run into a burrow or dive into the sand. Sometimes they will stop and freeze underneath a bush. |
| Diet |
| Eats primarily small invertebrates such as ants, beetles, and grasshoppers, along with occasional blossoms, leaves, and seeds. The consumption of plant material may inadvertently occur when a lizard is eating insects. Adults will also eat lizard hatchlings. |
| Reproduction |
| Clutches of 1 - 5 eggs are laid from May to July. |
| Range |
Inhabits areas of fine windblown sand in the Mojave Desert from the southern end of Death Valley south to the Colorado River around Blythe, and into extreme western Arizona.
From about 300 ft. to 3,000 ft. (90 - 910 m). (Stebbins 2003) |
| Habitat |
| Sparsely-vegetated arid areas with fine wind-blown sand, including dunes, flats with sandy hummocks formed around the bases of vegetation, washes, and the banks of rivers. Needs fine, loose sand for burrowing. |
| Taxonomic Notes |
Tre´panier and Murphy (2001) determined that 5 species of Uma inhabit the U.S.: Uma scoparia, Uma inornata, Uma notata, Uma rufopunctata, and an unnamed species from the Mohawk Dunes in Arizona.
A 2000 DNA study suggested that U. scoparia may consist of two distinct species. CNAH |
| Conservation Issues (Conservation Status) |
| Highly vulnerable to off-road vehicle activity and the establishment of windbreaks that affect how windblown sand is deposited. (Stebbins 2003) |
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Taxonomy |
| Family |
Phrynosomatidae |
Zebra-tailed, Earless, Fringe-toed, Spiny, Tree, Side-blotched, and Horned Lizards |
| Genus |
Uma |
Fringe-toed Lizards |
Species
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scoparia |
Mojave Fringe-toed Lizard |
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Original Description |
Uma scoparia - Cope, 1894 - Amer. Nat., Vol. 28, p. 435
from Original Description Citations for the Reptiles and Amphibians of North America © Ellin Beltz
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Meaning of the Scientific Name |
Uma - Yuma Native American group - possibly referring to its location in AZ
scoparia - Latin -twigs and -aria - having
from Scientific and Common Names of the Reptiles and Amphibians of North America - Explained © Ellin Beltz
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Alternate Names |
None
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Related or Similar California Lizards |
U. inornata - Coachella Valley Fringe-toed Lizard
U. notata - Colorado Desert Fringe-toed Lizard
C. d. rhodostictus - Western Zebra-tailed Lizard
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More Information and References |
Natureserve Explorer
California Dept. of Fish and Game
Stebbins, Robert C. A Field Guide to Western Reptiles and Amphibians. 3rd Edition. Houghton Mifflin Company, 2003.
Behler, John L., & F. Wayne King. The Audubon Society Field Guide to North American Reptiles and Amphibians. Alfred A. Knopf, 1992.
Smith, Hobart M. Handbook of Lizards, Lizards of the United States and of Canada. Cornell University Press, 1946.
The Coachella Valley Fringe-Toed Lizard (Uma inornata): Genetic Diversity and Phylogenetic Relationships of an Endangered Species Tanya L. Tre´panier and Robert W. Murphy
Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution Vol. 18, No. 3, March, pp. 327–334, 2001
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The following status listings come from the Special Animals List which is published several times each year by the California Department of Fish and Game.
There are no significant conservation concerns for this animal 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 Game |
DFG:SSC |
California Species of Special Concern |
| Bureau of Land Management |
BLM:S |
Sensitive |
| USDA Forest Service |
None |
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| Natureserve Global Conservation Status Ranks |
G3 |
Vulnerable |
World Conservation Union - IUCN Red List
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None |
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