This is Sceloporus occidentalis and those look like dessicated eggs to me. S. occidentalis will lay 3-17 eggs per clutch so this is within the correct range. I'm seeing tiny lizards everywhere at the moment and July is the upper range of the laying season. It's possible/ unlikely that the lizards in your area are becoming eggbound, dying and are exploding when they decompose, but more likely you have a cat near you that enjoys killing lizards without eating them. The tail here has been severed recently (if it was an older wound you'd see a black regrown stump), which suggests that it dropped the tail to escape from a predator. Gravid lizards are heavier and will probably be easier to catch than a lizard that isn't carrying eggs.
If you own a cat, this is one of the reasons it's best to keep them indoors, even if they are fixed and enjoy being outdoors. They kill native animals indiscriminately, mostly birds and lizards, and if you estimate that each of the lizards it killed was carrying 10 eggs, that means that 60 potential new individuals for the next generation have been wiped out :( Fence lizards aren't threatened but there are a lot of species you just won't find commonly anymore, and there's no need to make things harder for the wildlife around us.
TonesDropping on July 29th, 2019 at 16:25 UTC »
I suspect they’re eggs.
Edit to say that the shells haven’t fully formed on the eggs yet hence why they look weird.
Ale_toso01 on July 29th, 2019 at 16:55 UTC »
Imo they are eggs, but the fact that you found six lizards like this in only one month is very suspicious
alexds1 on July 29th, 2019 at 18:10 UTC »
This is Sceloporus occidentalis and those look like dessicated eggs to me. S. occidentalis will lay 3-17 eggs per clutch so this is within the correct range. I'm seeing tiny lizards everywhere at the moment and July is the upper range of the laying season. It's possible/ unlikely that the lizards in your area are becoming eggbound, dying and are exploding when they decompose, but more likely you have a cat near you that enjoys killing lizards without eating them. The tail here has been severed recently (if it was an older wound you'd see a black regrown stump), which suggests that it dropped the tail to escape from a predator. Gravid lizards are heavier and will probably be easier to catch than a lizard that isn't carrying eggs.
If you own a cat, this is one of the reasons it's best to keep them indoors, even if they are fixed and enjoy being outdoors. They kill native animals indiscriminately, mostly birds and lizards, and if you estimate that each of the lizards it killed was carrying 10 eggs, that means that 60 potential new individuals for the next generation have been wiped out :( Fence lizards aren't threatened but there are a lot of species you just won't find commonly anymore, and there's no need to make things harder for the wildlife around us.