Three regional races of the sagebrush lizard are recognized: the southern sagebrush lizard lives in Southern California, and the western and northern races are found in many western states, including Nevada, Oregon, Idaho, Colorado, Montana, Washington, New Mexico, Utah, Wyoming, North Dakota, South Dakota, Nebraska, and Arizona.

In appearance, sagebrush lizards are grey, brown or olive, with hints of blue or green on the dorsal surface during the light phase, and they often have irregular banding patterns on the body and tail.

The scales on the rear portion of the thigh are small and granular, while the armpit and lateral surface of the body is often rust-colored.

[4] The growth patterns of sagebrush lizards seem to be dependent on the daily and seasonal activity rather than adaptation to the local environment.

Lizards with longer periods of seasonal activity have larger maximal adult body sizes.

However, sagebrush lizards that exist at a higher elevation in SW Utah show a paradoxical pattern.

When these lizards were taken into the lab setting and variables were controlled for, they both grew at similar rates despite their population of origin.

It can be found throughout Utah, Nevada, southern Idaho, northern Arizona, northwestern New Mexico, Texas, and western Colorado.

Within the sagebrush lizard population, there is a pattern of geographic variation within body size and it is thought that thermal constraints may be an influencing factor.

Generally speaking, longer seasonal activity is associated with large adult body size and this translates into increased lizard growth because they spend more time foraging.

If there is less opportunity for thermal activity, high elevations, this should result in lizards with smaller adult body sizes.

However, it is seen that sagebrush lizards at high elevations exhibit faster growth despite the shorter seasonal activity and cooler environmental temperatures.

Additionally, the spatial distribution of environmental temperatures that are operative for lizards will constrain the time when they can be active.

[7] The sagebrush lizard is commonly observed in shrublands, but is also found in a variety of other habitats including coniferous forests, and piñon-juniper woodlands.

The sagebrush lizard is easily frightened and will immediately seek refuge in crevices, brush, rodent burrows, rocks, or trees when alarmed.

In Washington, this lizard is primarily associated with sand dunes and other sandy habitats that support shrubs and have large areas of bare ground.

The questions they asked were whether population-level discrimination varies in strength in relation to geographic distance between populations, whether it is more apparent in inter or intra sexual interactions, and if it takes the form of attraction or avoidance.

Male attraction and female avoidance play significant roles in population discrimination, speciation, and reproductive isolation.

Male and female lizards defend territories and during their active seasons, they engage with a lot of social interactions.

In terms of reproductive isolation in territorial species where mate choice is interconnected with spatial relationships, male attraction and female avoidance are particularly important mechanisms.

Since larger mass is an indicator that the female is gravid and receptive to courtship, it seems probable that males would prefer this size of lizard.

The populations they compared are from similar desert habitats, but over time, they probably have gone through rapid diversification of behavioral, physiological, and morphological traits.

This study cannot conclude whether the trait differences have an environmental or evolutionary basis or if they resulted from natural selection or by-products of genetic drift.

If the female sagebrush was previously confronted by the male already during their bout of repeated courtship, then they are less likely to perform rejection behavior.

In the study done by Mayte Ruiz in "Male Sagebrush Lizards Increase Exploratory Behavior Toward Females with More Courtship Experience", they used robotic lizards to present male courtship displays to females, either showing them a low or high quantity of displays.

For this reason, males might engage in exploratory chemical behaviors because of increased signals produced at different physiological stages.

Within many animal species and studies on sagebrush lizards, it has been found that females display their choice through differential avoidance of males.

[13] Sagebrush lizards are important prey for a variety of vertebrate species in the western United States.

The dunes sagebrush lizard (Sceloporus arenicolus), a rare relative of the sagebrush lizard formerly classified as a subspecies,[14] endemic to areas in western Texas and eastern New Mexico where oil deposits exist, could be affected by this federal change to the Endangered Species Act.

[15] There are two valid subspecies of the sagebrush lizard, which differ in their geographic distributions, markings, and number of scales.