Gila Monster

Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Subphylum: Vertebrata
Class: Reptilia
Order: Squamata
Family: Helodermatidae
Species: Heloderma suspectum

What would your life be like if…

• … you could hardly move whenever it got cold?
• … you had to bask under the sun on a bed of hot rocks?
• … you couldn’t eat until your body warmed up?

That’s how the Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum explains the life of a lizard in the Sonoran Desert.

During the hot summer months, they must be careful not to get too hot. They move back and forth from sun to shade in order to control their body temperature. Then, in the winter when it gets too cold, they hibernate.

The Gila monster is one of only two venomous, or poisonous, lizards in the world! It is found in deserts located in the Southwestern United States, especially in western and southern Arizona, and northwestern Mexico. It is one of the sole survivors of an ancient group of lizards known as the Monstersauria. It is a very large lizard and usually reaches about 18 inches in length. The Gila monster ordinarily has a large head, bulky body, a thick tail it uses to collect food and short legs with strong claws. The texture of its skin consists of beadlike scales, and its movements are slow and clumsy. A combination of brown or black with orange, pink, yellow or dull white makes up its marbled color.

The Gila monster eats young birds, mammals and eggs and has a low metabolism, making its eating patterns similar to that of a snake. Gila monsters typically eat their entire food supply for a year within three to four months. In fact, young Gila monsters can eat up to 50 percent of their body weight in one feeding (if you weigh 80 pounds, imagine eating 40 pounds of food for dinner!). The Gila monster spends most of its time underground in burrows.

Sources: Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum, www.desertmuseum.org; The Columbia Encyclopedia, encyclopedia.com; Dictionary.com, Animal- World, animal-world.com. Research assistance, Ashley Young.