---
title: "Viviparous Lizard"
description: "Zootoca vivipara — Reptiles. The viviparous lizard or common lizard (Zootoca vivipara) is a Eurasian lizard."
canonical: https://animalchecklist.com/animal/viviparous-lizard
last_updated: 2026-09-20
---

# Viviparous Lizard

> Zootoca vivipara — Reptiles. The viviparous lizard or common lizard (Zootoca vivipara) is a Eurasian lizard.

- Scientific name: *Zootoca vivipara*
- Category: `reptiles` (Reptiles)
- Habitats: unknown
- iNaturalist observations: 38309
- Wikidata: [Q204061](https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q204061)
- iNaturalist taxon: [35453](https://www.inaturalist.org/taxa/35453)

## Names

- en: Viviparous Lizard
- de: Waldeidechse
- es: Lagartija de Turbera
- fr: Lézard vivipare
- nl: Levendbarende hagedis
- pl: Jaszczurka żyworodna

## Countries with the most observations

RU (8391), GB (6520), DE (4726), FI (2408), DK (2165), PL (1758), FR (1628), AT (1070), SE (1037), CZ (883), LT (779), IT (745)

## Summary

The viviparous lizard or common lizard (Zootoca vivipara) is a Eurasian lizard. It lives farther north than any other non-marine, non-avian reptile species, and is named for the fact that it is viviparous, meaning it gives birth to live young (although they will sometimes lay eggs normally). Both "Zootoca" and "vivipara" mean "live birth", in (Latinized) Greek and Latin respectively. It was called Lacerta vivipara until the genus Lacerta was split into nine genera in 2007 by Arnold, Arribas & Carranza.
Zootoca vivipara lives in very cold climates, yet participates in normal thermoregulation instead of thermoconformity…

Text: Wikipedia (en), CC BY-SA 4.0 — https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Viviparous_lizard

## Photo

![Viviparous Lizard](https://animalchecklist.com/img/animals/viviparous-lizard/medium.jpg)

Photo: Irene Malone · CC0 · inaturalist — https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/187785764

## Machine access

`GET https://animalchecklist.com/api/v1/animals/viviparous-lizard?lang=en` — see [openapi.json](https://animalchecklist.com/openapi.json).