#1707 · 🦎 reptiles

Southwestern Fence Lizard

Sceloporus cowlesi

🦎 Reptiles 📍 outside Europe

8 photos from iNaturalist (Creative Commons) · credits & licences

what is it?

The southwestern fence lizard ( Sceloporus cowlesi ) also known as the White Sands prairie lizard or the White Sands swift is species of spiny lizard native to the Chihuahuan Desert of the southwest United States and north-central Mexico. Described in 1956 as Sceloporus undulatus cowlesi , subspecies of the eastern fence lizard, DNA studies elevated the southwestern fence lizard to species status.

base stats

NL sightings 0iNaturalist, research grade
worldwide 8,495iNaturalist observations

Bars compare against all animals on log scales: up to 300,000 Dutch and 600,000 worldwide sightings (the most-seen species), 150 t (blue whale), 30 m and 400 years (Greenland shark).

fun facts

No confirmed wild sightings in the Netherlands on iNaturalist: you'd have to travel for this one.
8,495 observations worldwide on iNaturalist.
Scientifically named by Charles Herbert Lowe in 1956 (70 years ago).