THE CENTER FOR NORTH AMERICAN HERPETOLOGY

Amphibia    Anura    Bufonidae  

Amargosa Toad
Anaxyrus nelsoni (Stejneger, 1893)
AH-naks-EE-rus — NEL-son-eye

SSAR 9th Edition Comments:
 See comment under Anaxyrus boreas. (Mendelson, Joseph R., III, Darrel R. Frost, Emily Moriarty Lemmon, and Maureen A. Donnelly. 2025. Anura – Frogs. Pages 1-9 in Kirsten E. Nicholson (Editor), Scientific and Standard English Names of Amphibians and Reptiles of North America North of Mexico, with Comments Regarding Confidence in Our Understanding, 9th Edition. Society for the Study of Amphibians and Reptiles, Lawrence, Kansas. 87 pp.)

Range maps are based on curated specimens and provided gratis by CNAH.
(Created by Travis W. Taggart; Version: 2023.09.10.10.59.25)
Download GeoJSON polygon range file: - 0.02 MB

Province/State Distribution:
United States: Nevada

Taxonomic Etymology:
The name combines a Greek-derived genus name with a Latinized patronym honoring an individual:
Anaxyrus — From Greek: ἀνάξ (anax) = “lord” or “king”. Anaxyrus means “noble toad” or “lordly toad,” reflecting its prominent status among North American toads.
nelsoni — A patronym, honoring Edward W. Nelson (1855–1934), a prominent American naturalist, ethnologist, and explorer. He conducted extensive biological surveys in North America and was an influential figure in early U.S. biological fieldwork. The suffix -i is the standard Latin genitive ending used when naming a species after a man, indicating possession or association (i.e., “of Nelson”).

First instance(s) of published English names:
Amargosa Toad (Bufo boreas nelsoni: Schmidt, Karl P. 1953. A Check List of North American Amphibians and Reptiles. 6th Edition. University of Chicago Press, Chicago, Illinois. 280pp.); Amargosa Toad (Anaxyrus nelsoni: Frost, Darrel R., Roy W. McDiarmid, Joseph R. Mendelson III, and David M. Green. 2012. Anura - Frogs. Pages 11-22 in Society for the Study of Amphibians and Reptiles, Herpetological Circular No. 39. pp.);

Taxon Links:

  
Catalog of American Amphibians and Reptiles
  
Amphibian Species of the World
  
NatureServe
  
iNaturalist
  
GenBank
  
USGS - Nonindigenous Aquatic Species Database

Selected References:
1893 Stejneger, Leonhard H. Annotated list of the reptiles and batrachians collected by the Death Valley Expedition in 1891, with descriptions of new species. North American Fauna 7:159–228
1962 Tihen, Joseph A. A review of new world fossil bufonids. American Midland Naturalist 68(1):1-50
1985 Stebbins, Robert C. Peterson Field Guide to Western Reptiles and Amphibians. 2nd ed. Houghton Mifflin Company, Boston, Massachusetts. pp.
1998 Altig, Ronald, Roy W. McDiarmid, K. A. Nichols, and Peter C. Ustach. A key to the anuran tadpoles of the United States and Canada. Contemporary Herpetology Information Series (2):
2004 Pauly, Gregory B., David M. Hillis, and David C. Cannatella. The history of a Nearctic colonization: Molecular phylogenetics and biogeography of the Nearctic toads (Bufo). Evolution 58:2517-2535
2005 Lannoo, Michael (Editor) Amphibian Declines: The Conservation Status of United States Species. University fo California Press, Berkeley. 1115pp.
2008 Pauly, Gregory B. Phylogenetic systematics, historical biogeography, and the evolution of vocalizations in Nearctic toads (Bufo). Dissertation. University of Texas, Austin. 165pp.
2013 Dodd, C. Kenneth. Frogs of the United States and Canada. John Hopkins University Press, Baltimore, Maryland. 982pp.
2016 Peralta-Garcia, Anny, Dean H. Leavitt, Bradford D. Hollingsworth, and Tod W. Reeder. The phylogenetic position of the Little Mexican Toad, Anaxyrus kelloggi, using molecular data. Journal of Herpetology 50(3):471-475
2023 Dodd, C. Kenneth. Frogs of the United States and Canada. Second Edition. John Hopkins University Press, Baltimore, Maryland. 1032pp.

THE CENTER FOR NORTH AMERICAN HERPETOLOGY — Accessed: Friday 05 December 2025 15:54 CT