California rock lizard
genus of reptiles
The California rock lizards are a genus (Petrosaurus) of New World lizards in the family Phrynosomatidae.
Geographic range
They are endemic to southern California, United States, and Baja California and Baja California Sur, Mexico.
Habitat
This lizard species lives almost exclusively on rock outcrops, boulder piles, and canyon walls, where it shelters under rocks. Their habitat consists of arid and semiarid foothills and canyons along the western margin of the Colorado Desert.
Reproduction
The courtship begins shortly after emergence in early spring. The eggs are laid around June and July.
Predators
The few predators that could pursue this lizard are collared lizards and avian predators, such as hawks, ravens, and roadrunners.
Species
The genus Petrosaurus contains four species.
“California rock lizard” enters the record as genus of reptiles. Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what California, rock and lizard can confirm, complicate or overturn.
Why this record matters
“California rock lizard” is worth following because a concise public description often conceals a longer documentary argument. Here, California, rock and lizard provides the most credible route into that argument.
Datasets, specimens, observations and peer-reviewed methods provide the appropriate test for the technical claims summarized here. The source revision retrieved here is dated Oct 30, 2025. The linked authority identifier is Q2686485. None of the 0 selected statements returned an explicit reference.
Scientific names, classifications and consensus can change while older terminology persists in catalogues and historical literature. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.
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This entry incorporates text from “California rock lizard” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.