The species, which was formerly called simply the "tree lizard", has been used to study physiological changes during the fight-or-flight response as related to stress and aggressive competition.

[5][6] This species has been fairly well studied because of its interesting variation in throat color in males (within a population) that can correlate with different reproductive strategies,[7][8] The ornate tree lizard may grow to a snout-to-vent length (SVL) of up to 59 millimetres (2.3 in).

[9] As adults, all males have paired turquoise patches of skin on the abdomen; females lack this abdominal coloration.

The first is characterized by a blue spot in the center of a larger orange patch on the throat fan ("dewlap").

It is thought that the blue patch on their throats acts as a badge that signals fighting ability and social status across age or sex classes.

[15] These two types of males, therefore, are thought to express alternative reproductive strategies due to their differences in territoriality.

Some, such as Stanford professor and biologist Joan Roughgarden, have suggested multiple male genders in this species.

[16] During dry weather conditions, orange-type males' corticosterone levels increase, which causes testosterone to decrease, leading them to be more likely to leave their territory and become nomadic.

[17] The link between social hierarchy and locomotor performance can be traced to the suite of displays that identify a dominant individual being the presence/size of the blue spot on their throats.

The OB male having territorial and defensive traits makes them spend more time fighting or displaying and asserting their dominance over the O lizards and exerting that amount of physical strength allows them to develop the higher rates of speed and longer durations of stamina.

Additionally, since throat coloration is a genetically determined trait, it is possible that the different throat colors seen in polymorphic males during developmental stages are responses to changing social roles, enabled by phenotypic plasticity, as the lizards mature.

The social systems that allow for the stability of the lizard population cause a mixed evolutionary stable strategy for the continuation of their genes.

During a four-year study in the grapevine hills of Big Bend National Park in Texas, researchers observed the behavior of this lizard from 1974 to 1978.

During the dry years, there is a decrease in available prey and the ornate tree lizard's individual foraging success, growth rates, body masses, and prehibernation lipid levels were significantly lower.

These results have led researchers to propose that dry years are stressors which induces changes in diet, behaviors, and health of individuals.

There is seasonal variation in the intensity of competition between these species which is highly correlated to food availability and the amount of rainfall.

Therefore, the state of the environment directly affects competition and food availability for the ornate tree lizard.

There are large temperature ranges throughout the southwestern United States and these lizards adapt to the different climates that they live in.

During the spring and summer seasons, however, the male growth rate increases to an average of 2.1 mm per month.

Both male and female ornate tree lizards emerge only on the warmest days in November and January, however, they engage in extended period of activity in February.

Chemical responses of the males when encountering a predator can include changes in their levels of testosterone and corticosterone while behavioral responses shown tend to be hiding and flight initiation distance (FID, the distance between the animal and the predator before escape is attempted).

Levels of expression in both chemical and behavioral responses can differ depending on color variation of the throat.

[14] The ornate tree lizard feeds on mostly insects and their larvae, but have also been known to eat plants and vegetables as well as inanimate objects thinking they were food.

[27] A group of U. ornatus, consisting of one male and one or more females, typically inhabits an area containing one or more large trees, shrubs, or boulders.

Reproducing female ornate tree lizards are generally pregnant between late March through August.

[28] During the months of June through to November, male ornate tree lizards have enlarged testes when they reach sexual maturity.

When the males emerge in January, they will have small testes, however, their mean testis size becomes progressively larger between the months of February, March, and April.

[28] When resources become scarce for the ornate tree lizard, this species encounters a multitude of critical challenges.

When the amount of food intake is manipulated for reproducing female ornate tree lizards, there are changes in their allocation of resources in their bodies.

[2] Nota bene: A trinomial authority in parentheses indicates that the subspecies was originally described in a genus other than Urosaurus.