These are one of my favorite lizards and I’ve come across them a few times in the Mojave Desert. With their large heads, powerful jaws and ability to run on their hind legs, Great Basin Collared Lizards are the Velociraptors of their domain.
This reptile is easy to identify due to its tiny scales (which look more like rough skin than scales) and its two distinctive black neck bands. On their body they are often covered with a combination of bands and spots on a background color that matches the desert surface.
Gravid (pregnant) females have orange blotches along their sides and immature males often exhibit this orange coloration as well, to avoid conflicts with mature males.
Unlike many other lizards that can be found on the flat desert floor, this species is mainly found in hilly, rocky terrain as well as in washes and canyons where large rocks used for protection and lookout sites.
Great Basin Collared Lizards primarily eat insects, spiders and scorpions, but they will also use their powerful jaws to consume small vertebrates, like lizards, snakes and rodents. They have also been known to occasionally consume plant matter.
These “miniature dinosaurs” have a neat physical appearance and are fun to watch as they leap from rock to rock to catch food – or as they race across the desert, running on their hind legs like a miniature Tyrannosaurus Rex.