[clarification needed] Lacertids are remarkably similar in form, with slender bodies and long tails, but have highly varied patterns and colours, even within the same species.

Their scales are large on the head, which often also has osteoderms, small and granular on the back, and rectangular on the underside.

[1] Lacertids are suspected to have originated in Europe, due to their earliest fossils being found in the region, alongside those of their sister group, the extinct Eolacertidae.

The oldest definitive lacertid is known from the early Eocene (Ypresian) in Mutigny, France in the Paris Basin.

[9] Family Lacertidae The latest extensive phylogenetic lacertid tree was made by Baeckens et al. in 2015.