Endangered
Coachella Valley fringe-toed lizard
Uma inornata
The Coachella Valley fringe-toed lizard is a phrynosomatid lizard, endemic to Riverside County, California.
Appearance
Snout-Vent Length (SVL): Females average 8.1 cm (range 7–9.9 cm), and males average 10.2 cm (range 8–12.2 cm). Features: Elongated scales (fringes) on hind toes, specialized nostrils, and scales covering ears to navigate loose, windblown sand. Appearance: Whitish or sand-colored body (its binomial name: U.
Total Length: 6 to 9 inches (15–23 cm).
Range and habitat
The lizard is endemic to Coachella Valley, California. The lizard is restricted to habitats with fine, windblown sand deposits in the sandy plains of the Coachella Valley, Riverside County, California. Since the 1970s, estimates of this species' habitat has decreased by about 75% due to human activities.
Pins are Wikidata “endemic to” fields. Orange dots, when present, are GBIF occurrence tiles — survey bias included.
Diet and breeding
During breeding season, male lizards minimize time spent foraging for food to maximize time for mating. Their diet consists of ants, beetles, flowers, leaves, spiders, and sometimes even their own shed skin.
Adult males and females have different diets only during breeding season, where males consume ants and plants in the mornings, whilst females feed on ants and other insects throughout the day.
In crisis
It is listed as an endangered species in California, a threatened species in the United States, and the IUCN classifies it as endangered.
Coachella Valley fringe-toed lizard is Endangered on this catalog because that is the IUCN category stored on Wikidata. Confirm the official criteria and any later count on iucnredlist.org.
Sources
Written for this catalog from the English Wikipedia article on Coachella Valley fringe-toed lizard, Wikidata item Q3538715. Family and order context is original field-guide writing about the group, not a copied assessment of this one species. Wikipedia text is CC BY-SA. Not an IUCN assessment. Counts, when quoted, can change — confirm them on the recovery programme and on iucnredlist.org.
