| Hot Creek toad | |
|---|---|
Scientific classification  | |
| Domain: | Eukaryota |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Chordata |
| Class: | Amphibia |
| Order: | Anura |
| Family: | Bufonidae |
| Genus: | Anaxyrus |
| Species: | A. monfontanus |
| Binomial name | |
| Anaxyrus monfontanus (Gordon, Simandle, Sandmeier & Tracy, 2020) | |
| Synonyms | |
Bufo monfontanus | |
The Hot Creek toad (Anaxyrus monfontanus or Bufo monfontanus) is a species of toad in the family Bufonidae. It is endemic to Nye County in the state of Nevada in the United States. [2] [3]
It was formerly considered an isolated population of the common western toad (A. boreas) until morphological and phylogenetic analyses found it to be a separate species, and described it as such (alongside the Railroad Valley toad, A. nevadensis) in 2020. The Dixie Valley toad (A. williamsi) was described a few years earlier for the same reasons. Hydrological analysis indicates that the White River likely had a historical connection to the Colorado River, allowing western toads from modern-day Colorado and Utah to disperse into the southern Great Basin; changes in river flow led to this isolation of these populations and allowed them to diverge into A. monfontanus and A. nevadensis. [4]
It is known only from the Hot Creek Canyon, a narrow east-to-west canyon in the Hot Creek Range in Nye County, Nevada. Here, it inhabits marsh habitats fed by hot springs. This is an extremely restricted and remote habitat surrounded otherwise by sagebrush steppe, restricting toad dispersal. [4] [5]
It is one of the smallest species in the A. boreas species complex, with only A. williamsi being smaller. It can be distinguished from A. boreas by its shorter head and limbs, large parotoid glands, and weakly warted body. It has an olive gray coloration with brown warts and black flecks across the dorsum. [4]
Very little is known about the population size, reproduction, and dispersal of this species, warranting major conservation concern. The American bullfrog (Lithobates catesbianus), which outcompetes and preys upon much smaller frogs and toads, in addition to being a major vector of chytridomycosis, has been introduced to the habitat of this species, which is likely a major factor in its endangerment and rarity. [4]
The black toad, also known as the Inyo toad or Deep Springs toad, is a true toad that lives only in scattered oases in the Deep Springs Valley of Inyo County, California. In fact, its original scientific name, Bufo exsul, means "exiled toad", which refers to its species' isolation in a tiny spot in the high desert wilderness of the Californian Great Basin.
The American toad is a common species of toad found throughout Canada and the eastern United States. It is divided into three subspecies: the eastern American toad, the dwarf American toad and the rare Hudson Bay toad. Recent taxonomic treatments place this species in the genus Anaxyrus instead of Bufo.
The western toad is a large toad species, between 5.6 and 13 cm long, native to western North America. A. boreas is frequently encountered during the wet season on roads, or near water at other times. It can jump a considerable distance for a toad. Breeding occurs between March and July in mountainous areas, and as early as January in lower-elevation regions. The female lays up to 17,000 eggs stuck together in strings that adhere to vegetation and other objects along water edges.
The red-spotted toad, formerly Bufo punctatus, is a toad in the family Bufonidae found in the southwestern United States and northwestern Mexico.
The Wyoming toad, also known commonly as Baxter's toad, is a species of toad in the family Bufonidae. The Wyoming toad is an extremely rare amphibian that exists only in captivity and within Mortenson Lake National Wildlife Refuge in Wyoming in the United States. The Wyoming toad was listed as an endangered species in 1984, and listed as extinct in the wild since 1991. As with black-footed ferrets at the Tom Thorne and Beth Williams Wildlife Research Center at Sybille in Wheatland, Wyoming, the effort to save the Wyoming toad has been a cooperative effort among state and federal agencies and private landowners. The Wyoming toad was common from the 1950s through the early 1970s, but its distribution was limited to the Laramie Basin in Albany County. The population crashed around 1975 and was extremely low by 1980. The Wyoming toad was federally listed as endangered in January 1984. To prevent extinction, a captive-breeding program began in 1989 at the Thorne Williams Unit that produced enough offspring in its first few years to supply seven zoos, and in 1998 the Saratoga National Fish Hatchery received captive-breeding stock. Nearly 46,000 offspring were produced at the Thorne Williams Unit from 1995 until 2006, when the remaining captive stock was moved to the Red Buttes Environmental Biology Laboratory south of Laramie, and then released back into the wild. Before the sharp declines occurred, this toad had been originally classified as Bufo hemiophrys baxteri, a subspecies of the Canadian toad, by Kenneth Raymond Porter in 1968.
Woodhouse's toad is a medium-sized true toad native to the United States and Mexico. There are three recognized subspecies. A. woodhousii tends to hybridize with Anaxyrus americanus where their ranges overlap.
The boreal toad is the nominate subspecies of the western toad. They are commonly found in the western U.S. and western Canada. Boreal toad populations have declined recently due to an emerging amphibian disease, chytrid fungus. The boreal toad is currently listed as an endangered species by Colorado and New Mexico. It is known in Colorado as the only alpine species of toad.
Anaxyrus fowleri, Fowler's toad, is a species of toad in the family Bufonidae. The species is native to North America, where it occurs in much of the eastern United States and parts of adjacent Canada. It was previously considered a subspecies of Woodhouse's toad.
The North American green toad is a species of toad found in the southwestern United States in the states of Arizona, New Mexico, Colorado, Kansas, Oklahoma and Texas. It is also found in northern Mexico in the states of Tamaulipas, San Luis Potosí, Durango, and Zacatecas. It is commonly called green toad.
The Yosemite toad is a species of true toad in the family Bufonidae. Endemic to the Sierra Nevada of California, the species ranges from the Alpine County to Fresno County. Yosemite toads are only found in the montane to subalpine elevational zone of 1,950–3,445 m (6,398–11,302 ft) asl. The Yosemite toad is similar to the nearby western toad, but in many ways adapted to a high elevation lifestyle. It was initially described during the Grinnell Survey of California, by an undergraduate student of Joseph Grinnell named Charles Camp.
The little Mexican toad, formerly Bufo kelloggi, is a species of toad in the family Bufonidae. It is endemic to Mexico and found in the Pacific coastal plains between central Sonora and Nayarit. The specific name honors Remington Kellogg, who was an American zoologist and a director of the United States National Museum.
Xanthophryne koynayensis is a species of toad in the family Bufonidae. It is endemic to the Western Ghats of India where it is known from Koyna in the Maharashtra state. Formerly included in the genus Bufo it has been since made the type species for the genus Xanthophryne and is a sister species of Xanthophryne tigerina.
The southwestern toad or Mexican Madre toad, formerly Bufo mexicanus, is a species of toad in the family Bufonidae. It is endemic to north-western Mexico and found on the Sierra Madre Occidental in eastern Sonora and western Chihuahua and south to south-western Durango. Its natural habitats are conifer forests, commonly along low rivers and streams, its breeding habitat. It is a rare species threatened by habitat disturbance, including alterations causing the desiccation of streams and soils.
The Arizona toad is a species of toad in the family Bufonidae. It is endemic to the south-western United States, where its natural habitats are temperate lowland forests, rivers and streams, swamps, freshwater marshes, freshwater springs, ponds, open excavations, irrigated land, and seasonally flooded agricultural land.
The Amargosa toad is a species of toad in the family Bufonidae. It was at one time considered to be a subspecies of the western toad. It is threatened by habitat loss and is classified by the IUCN as being critically endangered.
The Sonoran green toad is a species of toad in the family Bufonidae. It is found in northern Mexico and the southwestern United States.
Bufo tuberculatus, commonly known as the Qinghai Lake toad or round-warted toad, is a species of toad in the family Bufonidae. It is endemic to southwestern China: western Sichuan, very northern Yunnan, Qinghai, and the eastern tip of Tibet. It has been treated as a synonym of Bufo tibetanus but is now considered a valid species.
Anaxyrus, containing the North American toads, is a genus of true toads in the family Bufonidae. The genus is endemic to North and Central America, and contains many familiar North American toad species such as the American toad, Woodhouse's toad, and the western toad.
The Dixie Valley toad is a species of toad in the family Bufonidae. It is endemic to Churchill County in the state of Nevada in the United States. It was the first new toad species to be described from the United States since the description of the now-extinct in the wild Wyoming toad about 49 years prior.
The Railroad Valley toad is a species of toad in the family Bufonidae. It is endemic to Nye County in the state of Nevada in the United States.
