THE CENTER FOR NORTH AMERICAN HERPETOLOGY


Amphibia    Anura    Bufonidae  

Railroad Valley Toad
Anaxyrus nevadensis (Gordon, Simandle, Sandmeier, and Tracy, 2020)
AH-naks-EE-rus — neh-vah-DEN-sis

SSAR 9th Edition Comments:
This isolated population was diagnosed with respect to other taxa and populations in the A. boreas group based on data from morphology and mitochondrial DNA. See comments under A. 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: 2023.04.08.10.02.52)
Download GeoJSON polygon range file: - 0.01 MB

Province/State Distribution:
United States: Nevada

Taxonomic Etymology:
The name combines a classical Greek-derived genus name with a Latinized geographic species epithet:
Anaxyrus — From Greek: ἀνάξ (anax) = “lord” or “king”. Anaxyrus means “noble toad” or “lordly toad,” reflecting the genus’s prominence among North American toads.
nevadaensis — From Latin: nevadaensis = “from Nevada” This is a standard Latinized geographic epithet, used to denote species that are found in or associated with Nevada, USA.

First instance(s) of published English names:
No historic English names have been assigned to this taxon yet.

Taxon Links:

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

Selected References:
1962 Tihen, Joseph A. A review of new world fossil bufonids. American Midland Naturalist 68(1):1-50
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
2008 Pauly, Gregory B. Phylogenetic systematics, historical biogeography, and the evolution of vocalizations in Nearctic toads (Bufo). Dissertation. University of Texas, Austin. 165pp.
2020 Gordon, Michelle R., Eric T. Simandle, Franziska C. Sandmeier, and C. Richard Tracy. Two new cryptic endemic toads of Bufo discovered in central Nevada, western United States (Amphibia: Bufonidae: Bufo [Anaxyrus]). Copeia 108(1):166-183
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 15:53 CT