| Railroad Valley toad | |
|---|---|
Scientific classification  | |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Chordata |
| Class: | Amphibia |
| Order: | Anura |
| Family: | Bufonidae |
| Genus: | Anaxyrus |
| Species: | A. nevadensis |
| Binomial name | |
| Anaxyrus nevadensis (Gordon, Simandle, Sandmeier & Tracy, 2020) | |
| Synonyms | |
Bufo nevadensis | |
The Railroad Valley toad (Anaxyrus nevadensis) 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 Hot Creek toad, A. monfontanus) in 2020. The Dixie Valley toad (A. williamsi) was described a few years earlier for the same reasons. Phylogenetic evidence indicates that A. nevadensis and A. monfontanus are more closely related to A. boreas from modern-day Colorado and Utah than they are to any other members of the complex; hydrological analysis indicates that this may be because the White River and Colorado River likely had a historical connection, allowing western toads from those regions to colonize the southern Great Basin, and diverging into distinct species when the area dried up. [4]
It is endemic to the spring-fed wetlands of Lockes Ranch in Railroad Valley, Nye County, Nevada. 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. It can be distinguished from A. boreas by its longer head and limbs, shorter and more narrow parotoid glands, and distinctive mottling on the undersides. It is brownish gray in coloration, flecked with dark brown, irregular spots. [4]
Railroad Valley is Nevada's primary oil reservoir and the majority of the state's petroleum production comes from here. These extractive activities are of major threat to the species, compounded by its severely restricted range. The toad would be imperiled even more by further anthropogenic modifications that would degrade its habitat. [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 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 is a toad in the family Bufonidae found in the southwestern United States and northwestern Mexico.
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 Southern Rocky Mountains, and their population has recently been on the decline 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.
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, Anaxyrus debilis, is a species of toad found in the southwestern United States in the states of Arizona, New Mexico, Colorado, Kansas, Oklahoma and Texas, as well as in northern Mexico in the states of Tamaulipas, San Luis Potosí, Durango, and Zacatecas. It is commonly called green toad.
Incilius bocourti is a species of toad in the family Bufonidae. It is found in southwestern Guatemala and in Chiapas in the adjacent Mexico. Its phylogenetic position is uncertain; it might not to belong to this genus, being the sister taxon of Anaxyrus instead. It is named after Marie Firmin Bocourt, a French zoologist and artist.
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 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.
The southwestern toad or Mexican Madre toad 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" scorteccii, formerly known as Duttaphrynus scorteccii, is a species of toad in the family Bufonidae. It is endemic to Yemen, with its range restricted to a plateau near the western region of Mafhaq. Its natural habitats are shrubland as well as wetland areas.
Anaxyrus is a genus of true toads in the family Bufonidae. The genus is endemic to North and Central America. Some authors consider Anaxyrus to be a subgenus within Bufo.
The Dixie Valley is an endorheic basin which had plentiful ground water around which ranches were built. Prior to the US Navy TOPGUN school moving from California to Nevada, the valley was purchased in 1995 for $100 million and is used as an electronic warfare range for nearby Fallon Naval Air Station.
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.
Bufotes, the Eurasian green toads or Palearctic green toads, is a genus of true toads. They are native to Europe, western and central Asia and northern Africa; a region roughly equalling the western and central Palearctic. Historically they were included in the genus Bufo and then for a few years placed in Pseudepidalea, which is a synonym of the currently accepted name Bufotes.
The Hot Creek 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.
