The Mojave Desert, California, has a high diversity of lizards and snakes - such as the sidewinder, Crotalus cerastes (see photo). During my field work I have also seen a number of the desert tortoises, Gopherus agassizii (see photo).

There are a wide range of habitats available for lizards to occupy in the Mojave Desert, including sand dunes, bajada, washes, lava flows and granite mountains. I am investigating the microhabitat occupation, behavior, movement patterns and morphology of ten lizards species in the Mojave Desert. These species occupy many different habitats and they vary greatly in their morphology. For example, the lizard pictured here Uma scoparia, only occurs on loose fine sands like the Kelso Sand Dunes. This species has morphological characteristics, such as fringed toes, which allow it to move easily on the loose sand.