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Ancestor: Zootoca vivipara (Common Lizard) 

Size: Up to 32 cm

Dietary Needs: Invertebrates are their main food, usually very little choice between mealworms, camel crickets and sometimes an isopod colony in a lucky fragmenting dead palm. They weed out some of their future competition by cannibalising the slowest, easiest to catch young while reclaiming the nutrients. This keeps the prey instincts sharp in this species at least in young lizards and means more food in the environment for those that do survive.

Life Cycle: Males are competitive to mate with females, but females are not particularly competitive. They would rather birth away from other females because the other females will become predatory and may harm both offspring and the birthing mother. The fitness disparity between females that was present in the ancestral species is present here too, although the yellow high clutch size, low fitness offspring type tends to be the lesser population. It tends to recover more quickly after a severe event like drought has tanked the rest of the population, but will then be outcompeted when the orange low clutch size, high fitness offspring type takes over. Males continue to mate with both types and there is mixing between the types.

Other: When out in the heat of the day they keep their bodies elevated off the ground only using their feet and the long, stiffened end of the tail to prop themselves up off the burning sand. This consumes much more energy however and they will fatigue eventually as their body has not evolved yet to make this mechanically efficient, so they must find shade fast when the sand gets this hot.

When the sand gets bright they bring their eyelids together but not completely closed, but so that their eyes appear closed. By minimizing the amount of light coming in they minimize damage. Their vision is sensitive to see in dawn and dusk conditions, more tolerable temperatures and they may catch some late or early nocturnal prey.

By following camel crickets over time they are led to caves where many of the insects shelter from the day. The lizards attracted by prey often stay within and around these caves, the microclimate they offer is a secondary bonus.