Reptiles Database

Order Squamata
Suborder Sauria

Family Crotaphytidae / Subfamily Crotaphytinae


This family was previously (and is still sometimes) treated as a subfamily of the Iguanidae. However, Frost and Etheridge (1989) raised the group to family status and this has been widely accepted.

Crotaphytus collaris (female)
© Arie van der Meijden

Distribution: Southwestern North America from eastern Oregon to the Mississippi River and south to northern Mexico.

Habitat: deserts and other rocky, arid areas.

Size: 10-14 cm cnout-vent length.

Food: Invertebrates (insects), but also lizards and other small vertebrates (especially Gambelia).

Behaviour: crotaphytid lizards use sqealing vocalizations when stressed (like some polychrotids, but unlike any other iguanid). Crotaphytus can use a form of bipedalism in moving among rocks.

Zoological definition (according to Frost & Etheridge, 1989):

  • maxillae not meeting anteromedially behind palatal portion of premaxilla;
  • lacrimal foramen not enlarged;
  • skull roof not strongly rugose, except in old Crotaphytus;
  • jugal and squamosal not broadly juxtaposed;
  • parietal roof trapezoidal;
  • parietal foramen in frontoparietal suture;
  • supratemporal sits on lateral sitde of supratemproal process of parietal;
  • nuchal endolymphatic sacs do not penetrate nuchal musculature;
  • dentary not expanded onto labial face of coronoid;
  • labial blade of coronoid poorly developed or absent;
  • anterior surangular foramen above posteriormost extent of dentary;
  • Meckel's groove not fused;
  • splenial relatively long anteriorly;
  • dentary and maxillary teeth pleurodont, not fused to underlying bone in adults;
  • palatine teeth present;
  • pterygoid teeth present;
  • posterior process of interclavicle not invested by sternum far anteriorly;
  • caudal autotomy fracture plane present (except in Crotaphytus), with transverse processes anterior to fracture planes;
  • posterior coracoid fenestra present;
  • sternal fontanelles very small or absent;
  • sternal ribs: 4;
  • postxiphisternal inscriptional ribs short;
  • interparietal scale not enlarged;
  • mid-dorsal scale row absent;
  • gular fold complete medially;
  • femoral pores present;
  • spinulate scale organs absent;
  • S-condition nasal apparatus; nasal vestibule long, S-shaped, concha present;
  • hemipenes unicapitate, unisulcate;
  • colic septa absent.

Related Taxa


List of genera:

References:

Frost,D.E. & Etheridge,R.E. (1989)
A Phylogenetic Analysis and Taxonomy of Iguanian Lizards (Reptilia: Squamata)
Univ. Kansas Mus. Nat. Hist. Misc. Publ. 81

McGuire, J. A. (1996)
Phylogenetic systematics of crotaphytid lizards (Reptilia: Iguania: Crotaphytidae).
Bulletin of Carnegie Museum of Natural History 32: 1-142

McGuire, Jimmy A. et al. (2007)
Mitochondrial introgression and incomplete lineage sorting through space and time: phylogenetics of crotaphytid lizards.
Evolution 61(12):2879-2897

Montanucci, R. R. (1969)
Remarks upon the Crotaphytus-Gambelia controversy (Sauria: Iguanidae).
Herpetologica 25: 308-314

Montanucci, R. R.;Axtell, R. W.;Dessauer, H. C. (1975)
Evolutionary divergence among collared lizards (Crotaphytus), with comments on the status of Gambelia.
Herpetologica 31 (3): 336-347

Robison, Wilber Gerald Jr & Tanner, Wilmer W. (1962)
A comparative study of the species of the genus CrotaphytusHolbrook (Iquanidae) [sic].
Brigham Young University Science Bulletin 2 (1): 1-31

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