Alligator lizzard?

[nimrodfiftyfour]

My friend gave me what he called an alligator lizzard. It appears to be a type of skink. Anyone know anything about these? Thanks.

[Bartman]

Do you have a picture to maybe give you an exact identification...then we will forsure know what advice to give you...

[JD@reptiles]

LOL, i had those things for the longest time. they were hard to sell, lol. they are neat. they are native to western and southern north america. aligator lizards are pretty interesting though.

[nimrodfiftyfour]

Are they native to the Utah area? I hope not...

[JD@reptiles]

Northern Alligator Lizard (Elgaria coerulea principis) occurs
in southern ... Baja, California and northern Arizona and east to central Utah.


http://www.uoregon.edu/~titus/herp/assets/coerulea.jpg

[JD@reptiles]

just keep it localy quiet...

[creepiecrawlie]

Yeah I have heard of those guys. They are diurnal lizards with a prehinsile tail.They are found in many areas in the United States basicly down in southern Texas. The smaller species have a clutch of about a dozen eggs while the larger have a clutch of about 30 eggs. Like their namesake they do protect the nest biting almost anything that goes anywhere near it. The species is called Gerrhonotus. One of the largest species is Gerrhonotus Iiocephalus (Texas Alligator lizard). Their tail is about half their length and the head slightly resembles an alligators skull. They have small legs which is probably why you thought it looked like a skink. Their scales are large and fit like bricks on the body making it feel real smooth. It gets around 6 t o 18 inches. It's diet mainly consists of spiders scorpions and other arthropods and it will also eat insects. Large species and specimens will also accept small to medium sized mice. None of them are brightly colored either and are one of the best lizards at (exclu. leaf tailed geckos) camoflauge.

[JD@reptiles]

the tail isn't really prehensile, but on the way to be in the evolution. as for eggs, they are live birth from my experiences with them.... its funny though, when they bite you they do almost a death roll, lol.

[sketchy4]

thats a pretty cool looking lizard.

[creepiecrawlie]

Yeah the egg thing and the prehinsile tail was from a book the rest I knew.

[nimrodfiftyfour]

yup, thats it. The only diff. is that mine has a huge fat tail. A few questions though. First do they need UV, also what should be their primary diet? Thanks for your help.

[JD@reptiles]

i fed mine anything that i reasonably fit into their mouth, and some cat food. they also seem to do better with UV