Member species are native to the Caucasus, Iran and Turkey, living in forest and grassy habitats with numerous rock outcrops.
Most types of rock lizards are characterized by a diverse color of the abdominal side of the body, ranging from various shades of pink, red and orange to yellow and green.
For several decades, scientists from different countries studied the monophyletic group of rock lizards independently, highlighting new subspecies, simplifying some taxa and describing new species.
In 1997, the Spanish scientist Oscar J. Arribas named the genus of rock lizards Darevskia and designated the type species as D. saxicola.
According to Arribas (1997), the genus Darevskia includes four groups (clades), combining species by origin and kinship: “raddei”, “rudis”, “saxicola” and “caucasica”.
It is worth noting that the boundaries of the range of some species are not reliably known, but the expected areas of their encounters coincide with the already indicated distribution sites for the whole genus Rock lizards are found in various high-altitude zones from 0 to 3,000 m (0 to 9,843 ft) above sea level and occupy a variety of landscapes: mountain-steppe, forest-steppe, mountain meadow, mountain forest, anthropogenic and coastal.
By confinement to one or another habitat, they can be conditionally divided into several groups: 1) Lizards living in the forest, according to the occupied microreliefs, are divided into: adhering to rock outcrops (D. raddei, D. brauneri) and independent of them, able to live in habitats in which there are no rocks, using rodent burrows as shelters, deciduous litter, cavities in trees and bark (e.g. D. chlorogaster, D. armeniaca).
Zonal and geographical distribution is determined by the amount of precipitation, average annual temperature, duration of the adverse season, and exposure of the slope.
Rock lizards feed on various invertebrates with a body size from a few millimeters to 4 cm (1.6 in): spiders, diptera, lepidoptera, hymenoptera, cockroaches, orthoptera, semi-rigid-winged, coleoptera, wood lice, worms, slugs, marine and freshwater amphipods, caddis flies, chironomids and sometimes parts of plants.
Despite the diversity of the food supply, rock lizards can develop preferences for feeding on invertebrates of a certain group (for example, flying forms of ants), which is caused by seasonal changes in the availability or abundance of this type of prey.
Even after a significant reduction in the density of invertebrates of this group, lizards continue to hunt for them for some time in the presence of more accessible food objects.
Separation of the genus Darevskia from the subfamily Lacertinae occurred approximately 12-16 million years ago, in the middle of the Miocene.
Due to the doubled reproduction rate and successful resettlement, same-sex populations later began to exist independently of the parent species.
A small amount of parthenogenetic female males emerging from clutches is explained by frequently occurring mutations incompatible with life.
Despite the fact that as a result of parthenogenesis, individuals are born that receive hereditary material only from the mother's body, a small intraspecific genetic diversity has been revealed due to mutational processes, genetic instability and the appearance of same-sex species as a result of repeated and independent crossing of parental species among themselves.