THE CENTER FOR NORTH AMERICAN HERPETOLOGY

Reptilia    Squamata (part-other lizards)    Teiidae  

Canyon Spotted Whiptail
Aspidoscelis burti (Taylor, 1938)
as-pid-OSS-uh-lis — BERT-eye

SSAR 9th Edition Comments:
 Both subspecies below were treated as species in the 8th edition of this list; however, Barley et al. (2021, American Naturalist, 198: 295–309) suggested that they are conspecific with A. burti (although A. b. xanthonotus was not sampled) based on phylogenetic and population structure analyses. (de Queiroz, Kevin and Lauren M. Chan. 2025. Squamata (excluding snakes) – Lizards. Pages 23-37 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: 2024.07.02.15.17.46)
Download GeoJSON polygon range file: - 0.4 MB

Province/State Distribution:
United States: Arizona Arizona New Mexico

Taxonomic Etymology:
A lizard species named in honor of a prominent American herpetologist.
Aspidoscelis — From Greek ἀσπίς (aspís) = “shield”; and σκέλος (skelos) = “leg” or “shin”; combined meaning: “shield leg” — referring to the large, overlapping scales on the limbs and underside of these lizards.
burti — Latinized genitive form honoring Charles E. Burt (1881–1958), an American herpetologist who collected the type specimen in Sonora, Mexico.

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
  
The Reptile Database
  
NatureServe
  
iNaturalist
  
GenBank
  
USGS - Nonindigenous Aquatic Species Database

Selected References:
1931 Burt, Charles E. A study of the teiid lizards of the genus Cnemidophorus with special reference to their phylogenetic relationships. Bulletin of the United States National Museum (154):1-286
1938 Taylor, Edward H. Notes on the herpetological fauna of the Mexican state of Sonora. University of Kansas Science Bulletin (19):475-503
1970 Gorman, George C. Chromosomes and the systematics of the family Teiidae (Sauria, Reptilia). Copeia 1970(2):230-245
1991 Collins, Joseph T. Viewpoint: A new taxonomic arrangement for some North American amphibins and reptiles Herpetological Review 22(2):42-43
2002 Reeder, Tod W., Charles J. Cole, and Herbert C. Dessauer. Phylogenetic relationships of Whiptail lizards of the genus Cnemidophorus (Squamata: Teiidae): A test of monophyly, reevaluation of karyotypic evolution, and review of hybrid origins. American Museum Novitates (3365):1-61
2014 Crother, Brian I. The bold taxonomic hypotheses of Collins (1991): 23 years later. Herpetological Review 45(2):268-272
2017 Bezy, Robert L., Philip C. Rosen, Thomas R. Van Devender, and Erik F. Enderson. Southern distributional limits of the Sonoran Desert herpetofauna along the mainland coast of northwestern Mexico Mesoamerican Herpetology 4(1):138-167
2025 Taylor, Harry L., William B. Neaves, Diana P. Baumann, Charles J. Cole, and Peter Bauman. Two new color-pattern classes in the parthenogenetic Teiid Lizard Aspidoscelis exsanguis (Chihuahuan Spotted Whiptail), their ontogenetic origins, and a redefinition of pattern class T. Herpetological Review 55(3):341–349

THE CENTER FOR NORTH AMERICAN HERPETOLOGY — Accessed: Friday 05 December 2025 15:52 CT