# Identify this lizard

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/identify-this-lizard/269853>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [October 18, 2004, 4:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/identify-this-lizard/269853 "2004-10-18T16:54:54Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 6\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![alterego](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/6bbea6/32.png) [@alterego](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/alterego)\
**Post date:** [October 18, 2004, 4:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/identify-this-lizard/269853/1 "2004-10-18T16:54:54Z")

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[Can you identify this lizard?](http://www.gawr.com/br1annet/gallery/Miscellaneous-Photos/identifythislizard)

I’m sure it’s nothing extraordinary, but he looks hella cool 🙂 (friend of mine)

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**Author:** ![Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bosda_di_chi_of_tricor/32/16845_2.png) [@Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bosda_Di_Chi_of_Tricor)\
**Post date:** [October 18, 2004, 5:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/identify-this-lizard/269853/2 "2004-10-18T17:03:34Z")

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Interesting.

The head resembles a turtle’s, but no shell.

What does it eat, pray tell-pray tell?

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**Author:** ![tomndebb](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/b9e5f3/32.png) [@tomndebb](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tomndebb)\
**Post date:** [October 18, 2004, 5:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/identify-this-lizard/269853/3 "2004-10-18T17:10:34Z")

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Looks to me like a uromastyx. They are members of the _Agama_ family.

There are a lot of different links to Agama or uromastyx sites, but [this one](http://www.agamainternational.com/acanthinurus.shtml) has a photo _similar to_ the one in your pic. (There are several different species and the uromastyx (uromastyces?) that are commonly sold as pets in the States are different with a head shaped differently, but they share the similar tail.)

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**Author:** ![alterego](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/6bbea6/32.png) [@alterego](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/alterego)\
**Post date:** [October 18, 2004, 5:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/identify-this-lizard/269853/4 "2004-10-18T17:14:54Z")

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I’ve been looking around at [pictures](http://images.google.com/images?hl=en&lr=&c2coff=1&q=uromastyx&btnG=Search) of uromastyx lizards but they all seem to have more iguana type heads rather than turtle. I don’t see any bleached desert varieties either.

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**Author:** ![photopat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/e95f7d/32.png) [@photopat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/photopat)\
**Post date:** [October 18, 2004, 5:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/identify-this-lizard/269853/5 "2004-10-18T17:18:29Z")

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It’s Bob! I wondered where he got to.

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**Author:** ![Tamerlane](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tamerlane/32/7602_2.png) [@Tamerlane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tamerlane)\
**Post date:** [October 18, 2004, 7:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/identify-this-lizard/269853/6 "2004-10-18T19:44:53Z")

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It’s a uromastyx for sure, probably U. aegyptius ( there are at least two species in the Arabian penninsula/Iraq region ):

[http://www.kingsnake.com/uromastyx/JohnC/JohnC.htm](http://www.kingsnake.com/uromastyx/JohnC/JohnC.htm)

- Tamerlane