Mexican Plateau horned lizard

Last updated

Mexican Plateau horned lizard
Phrynosoma orbiculare 1.jpg
P. orbiculare in Veracruz, Mexico, showing blood squirted from eye as defensive behavior.
Scientific classification Red Pencil Icon.png
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Reptilia
Order: Squamata
Suborder: Iguania
Family: Phrynosomatidae
Genus: Phrynosoma
Species:
P. orbiculare
Binomial name
Phrynosoma orbiculare
(Linnaeus, 1758) [2] [3]
Synonyms [2]
  • Lacerta orbicularis
    Linnaeus, 1758
  • Agama orbicularis
    Daudin, 1805
  • Phrynosoma orbiculare
    Wiegmann, 1828
  • Tapaya orbicularis longicaudatus
    Dugès, 1888
  • Phrynosoma orbiculare
    H.M. Smith & Taylor, 1950

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]

Contents

Description

Mountain horned lizard (Phrynosoma orbiculare orientale), Municipality of Miquihuana, Tamaulipas, Mexico (24 September 2009) Mountain horned lizard (Phrynosoma orbiculare orientale), Municipality of Miquihuana, Tamaulipas, Mexico (24 September 2009).jpg
Mountain horned lizard (Phrynosoma orbiculare orientale), Municipality of Miquihuana, Tamaulipas, Mexico (24 September 2009)

P. orbiculare has a characteristic single row of lateral abdominal fringe scales. This "horned toad" also has two short occipital horns. [5]

Geographic range

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]

Habitat

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]

Subspecies

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.

Reproduction

P. orbicularis is viviparous. [2]

Etymology

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]

Related Research Articles

<i>Basiliscus</i> (lizard) Genus of lizards

Basiliscus is a genus of large corytophanid lizards, commonly known as basilisks, which are endemic to southern Mexico, Central America, and northern South America. The genus contains four species, which are commonly known as the Jesus Christ lizard, or simply the Jesus lizard, due to their ability to run across water for significant distances before sinking due to the large surface area of their feet.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Horned lizard</span> Genus of reptiles

Horned lizards (Phrynosoma), also known as horny toads or horntoads, are a genus of North American lizards and the type genus of the family Phrynosomatidae. The common names refer directly to their horns or to their flattened, rounded bodies, and blunt snouts.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Greater short-horned lizard</span> Species of reptile

The greater short-horned lizard, also commonly known as the mountain short-horned lizard, is a species of lizard 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.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Marie Firmin Bocourt</span> French zoologist and artist (1819-1904)

Marie Firmin Bocourt was a French zoologist and artist.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Texas horned lizard</span> Species of lizard

The Texas horned lizard is one of about 14 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.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Desert horned lizard</span> Species of lizard

The desert horned lizard is a species of phrynosomatid lizard native to western North America. They are often referred to as "horny toads", although they are not toads, but lizards.

<i>Spilotes pullatus</i> Species of snake

Spilotes pullatus, commonly known as the caninana, tiger rat snake, chicken snake, yellow rat snake, or serpiente tigre, is a species of large nonvenomous colubrid snake endemic to warmer parts of the Americas.

<i>Oxyrhopus petolarius</i> Species of snake

Oxyrhopus petolarius, commonly known as the false coral, or the calico snake, is a species of snake in the family Colubridae. The species is endemic to South America. There are three recognized subspecies.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Short-tailed horned lizard</span> Species of lizard

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.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Coast horned lizard</span> Species of lizard

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.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Adolphe Boucard</span>

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.

<i>Holbrookia maculata</i> Species of lizard

Holbrookia maculata, commonly known as the lesser earless lizard, is a species of lizard in the family Phrynosomatidae. The species is native to the southwestern and central United States and northern Mexico. There are eight recognized subspecies.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Alfredo Dugès</span>

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.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mexican horned lizard</span> Species of lizard

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.

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.

Baur's short-horned lizard is a species of small horned lizard that is endemic to the United States.

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.

References

  1. 1 2 Mendoza-Quijano, F.; Vázquez Díaz, J.; Quintero Díaz, G.E. (2007). "Phrynosoma orbiculare". IUCN Red List of Threatened Species . 2007: e.T64079A12734405. doi: 10.2305/IUCN.UK.2007.RLTS.T64079A12734405.en . Retrieved 20 November 2021.
  2. 1 2 3 4 5 Phrynosoma orbiculare at the Reptarium.cz Reptile Database. Accessed 30 October 2015.
  3. "Phrynosoma orbiculare (Linnaeus, 1758)". Integrated Taxonomic Information System . Retrieved 30 October 2015.
  4. 1 2 Sherbrooke, Wade C. (2003). Introduction to Horned Lizards of North America. University of California Press. p. 61. ISBN   9780520926752.
  5. 1 2 3 Hodges, Wendy (2003). "Phrynosoma orbiculare, Chihuahua Desert Horned Lizard". Digimorph.org. Retrieved 30 October 2015.
  6. 1 2 Beolens, Bo; Watkins, Michael; Grayson, Michael (2011). The Eponym Dictionary of Reptiles. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press. xiii + 296 pp. ISBN   978-1-4214-0135-5. (Phrynosoma orbiculare cortezii, p. 60; P. o. dugesii, p. 76).

Further reading