Mexican Plateau horned lizard | |
---|---|
P. orbiculare in Veracruz, Mexico, showing blood squirted from eye as defensive behavior. | |
Scientific classification | |
Domain: | Eukaryota |
Kingdom: | Animalia |
Phylum: | Chordata |
Class: | Reptilia |
Order: | Squamata |
Suborder: | Iguania |
Family: | Phrynosomatidae |
Genus: | Phrynosoma |
Species: | P. orbiculare |
Binomial name | |
Phrynosoma orbiculare | |
Synonyms [2] | |
|
The Mexican Plateau horned lizard [4] (Phrynosoma orbiculare) is a species of horned lizard in the family Phrynosomatidae. [2] The species, also known commonly as the Chihuahua Desert horned lizard, [5] is endemic to Mexico. There are five recognized subspecies. The specific epithet, orbiculare, comes from the Latin adjective orbis, meaning "circular". [4]
P. orbiculare has a characteristic single row of lateral abdominal fringe scales. This "horned toad" also has two short occipital horns. [5]
P. orbiculare is found only in the high plateau country of central Mexico. Specifically, it is found in the Mexican states of Chihuahua, Durango, Morelos, Nuevo León, Puebla, and Veracruz. [5]
P. orbiculare occurs in a wide range of primary habitats (dry scrubland, pine-oak forest, oak forest, juniper forest) and secondary habitats (agricultural land, and agave and Opuntia fields). [1]
Five subspecies of P. orbiculare are recognized as being valid, including the nominotypical subspecies. [2]
Nota bene : A trinomial authority in parentheses indicates that the subspecies was originally described in a genus other than Phrynosoma.
P. orbicularis is viviparous. [2]
The subspecific name, cortezii, is in honor of Spanish conquistador Hernán Cortés. [6]
The subspecific name, dugesii, is in honor of French-born Mexican naturalist Alfredo Dugès, who is considered the "father" of Mexican herpetology. [6]
Phrynosoma, whose members are known as the horned lizards, horny toads, or horntoads, is a genus of North American lizards and the type genus of the family Phrynosomatidae. Their common names refer directly to their horns or to their flattened, rounded bodies, and blunt snouts.
Lepidophyma is a genus of lizards, commonly called tropical night lizards. The genus Lepidophyma is one of three genera of night lizards, which are a group of viviparous (live-bearing) lizards. There are 20 species of tropical night lizards in the genus Lepidophyma, making it the most populous night lizard genus. Species of the genus Lepidophyma are distributed throughout Central America, found anywhere from central Mexico to Panama, depending on the particular species. Tropical night lizards, particularly the yellow-spotted species, are sometimes called Central American bark lizards by pet dealers and owners.
The greater short-horned lizard, also commonly known as the mountain short-horned lizard or Hernández's short-horned lizard, is a species of lizard in the family Phrynosomatidae. The species is endemic to western North America. Like other horned lizards, it is often called a "horned toad" or "horny toad", but it is not a toad at all. It is a reptile, not an amphibian. It is one of seven native species of lizards in Canada.
Marie Firmin Bocourt was a French zoologist and artist.
The Texas horned lizard is one of about 21 North American species of spikey-bodied reptiles called horned lizards, all belonging the genus Phrynosoma. It occurs in south-central regions of the US and northeastern Mexico, as well as several isolated introduced records and populations from Southern United States. Though some populations are stable, severe population declines have occurred in many areas of Texas and Oklahoma. The Texas spiny lizard may be confused for a Texas horned lizard due to its appearance and overlapping habitat. Because the Texas horned lizard is listed as a threatened species in the state, it is illegal to pick up, touch, or possess them in Texas.
Spilotes pullatus, commonly known as the chicken snake, tropical chicken snake, or yellow rat snake, is a species of large nonvenomous colubrid snake endemic to the Neotropics.
Oxyrhopus petolarius, commonly known as the forest flame snake, is a species of mildly venomous snake in the family Colubridae. The species is endemic to Central and South America. There are three recognized subspecies.
The short-tailed horned lizard is a species of lizard in the family Phrynosomatidae. The species is endemic to Mexico. It has a very distinct, shortened tail, which is sometimes not apparent.
The coast horned lizard is a species of phrynosomatid lizard endemic to Baja California Sur in Mexico. As a defense the lizard can shoot high pressure streams of blood out of its eyes if threatened.
Adolphe Boucard was a French ornithologist and trader in specimens who collected extensively in Mexico and Central America. He lived in San Francisco between 1851 and 1852, at the height of the California Gold Rush. He concentrated on collecting hummingbirds, sold scientific bird skins to natural history museums, and supplied the plume trade. He collected birds on expeditions to southern Mexico between 1854 and 1867, and many specimens were sold to P.L. Sclater. By 1865 he had become a foreign corresponding member of the Zoological Society of London. In 1891 he moved to London and set up a taxidermist company, Boucard, Pottier & Co. He published a periodical The Hummingbird (1891–95), which was stopped shortly after he moved to the Isle of Wight in 1894, the same year in which he published Travels of a Naturalist. He died at his son's home in Hampstead in 1905.
Alfredo Dugès was a French-born, Mexican physician and naturalist born in Montpellier. He was the son of zoologist Antoine Louis Dugès (1797–1838). Alfredo Dugès is largely remembered for his extensive studies of Mexican herpetology.
The Mexican horned lizard is a horned lizard species native to Mexico. Horned lizards are sometimes referred to as "horned toads" or "horny toads", although they are not toads. Compared to other members of the horned lizards, little is known about this species.
In the 10th edition of Systema Naturae, Carl Linnaeus described the Amphibia as:
Animals that are distinguished by a body cold and generally naked; stern and expressive countenance; harsh voice; mostly lurid color; filthy odor; a few are furnished with a horrid poison; all have cartilaginous bones, slow circulation, exquisite sight and hearing, large pulmonary vessels, lobate liver, oblong thick stomach, and cystic, hepatic, and pancreatic ducts: they are deficient in diaphragm, do not transpire (sweat), can live a long time without food, are tenatious of life, and have the power of reproducing parts which have been destroyed or lost; some undergo a metamorphosis; some cast (shed) their skin; some appear to live promiscuously on land or in the water, and some are torpid during the winter.
The yellow-spotted tropical night lizard or yellow-spotted night lizard is a species of night lizard. The species is distributed from central Mexico, through Central America, south to Panama. It includes two subspecies.
Campo Verde Flora and Fauna Protection Area is a protected area in northern Mexico. It covers an area of 1080.67 km2 in northwestern Chihuahua, on the border with Sinaloa. It is at the eastern edge of the Sierra Madre Occidental, where it meets the Chihuahuan Desert.
Sceloporus dugesii, also known commonly as Dugès' spiny lizard and la lagartija espinosa de Dugès del este in Mexican Spanish, is a species of lizard in the family Phrynosomatidae. The species is endemic to Mexico.