THE CENTER FOR NORTH AMERICAN HERPETOLOGY

Reptilia    Squamata (part)    Crotalidae  

Prairie Rattlesnake
Crotalus viridis (Rafinesque, 1818)

SSAR 9th Edition Comments:
 See comments under Crotalus.

Range maps are based on curated specimens and provided gratis by CNAH.
(Created by Travis W. Taggart; Version: 2023.04.08.12.46.05)
Download GeoJSON polygon range file: - 1.36 MB

Province/State Distribution:
Canada: Alberta Saskatchewan
USA: Arizona Colorado Idaho Iowa Kansas Montana Nebraska New Mexico North Dakota Oklahoma South Dakota Texas Utah Wyoming

First instance(s) of published English names:
Green Rattlesnake (Crotalinus viridis: Rafinesque, Constantine S. 1818. Further account of discoveries in natural history, in the western states. The American Monthly Magazine and Critical Review 4():39-42); Prairie Rattlesnake (Crotalus confluentus: Cooper, James G., George Suckley, William Cooper, George Gibbs, Asa Gray, and John L. Le Conte. 1859. The natural history of Washington territory, with much relating to Minnesota, Nebraska, Kansas, Oregon, and California, between the thirty-sixth and forty-ninth parallels of latitude, being those parts of the final reports on the survey of the Northern Pacific railroad route, containing the climate and physical geography, with full catalogues and descriptions of the plants and animals collected from 1853 to 1857. Bailliere Bros., London, H. Bailliere;, New York, New York. pp.); Confluent Rattlesnake (Crotalus confluentus: Yarrow, Henry C. 1882. Check list of North American Reptilia and Batrachia with catalogue of specimens in U. S. National Museum. Bulletin of the United States National Museum (24):1-249); Say's Rattlesnake (Crotalus confluentus: Brown, Arthur, E. 1902. Report of the Board of Directors. Pages 5-22 in Thirtieth Annual Report of the Board of Directors of the Zoological Society of Philadelphia. Allen, Lane, and Scott, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. pp.); Massasauga (Crotalus confluentus: Branson, Edwin B. 1904. Snakes of Kansas. University of Kansas Science Bulletin 2(13):353-430); Prairie Rattler (Crotalus confluentus: Stejneger, Leonhard H. and Thomas Barbour. 1917. A Checklist of North American Amphibians and Reptiles. Harvard University Press, Cambridge, Massachusetts. pp.); Plains Rattlesnake (Crotalus confluentus: Strecker, John K., Jr. 1922. An annotated catalogue of the amphibians and reptiles of Bexar County, Texas. Bulletin Scientific Society of San Antonio (4):1-31); Prairie Rattler (Crotalus confluentus confluentus: Brennan, Lawrence A. 1934. A check list of the amphibians and reptiles of Ellis County, Kansas. Transactions of the Kansas Academy of Science 37():189-191); Grand Canyon Rattlesnake (Crotalus abyssus: Schmidt, Karl Peterson and D. D. Davis. 1941. Field Book of Snakes of the United States and Canada. C.P. Putnam and Sons, New York. 365pp.); Prairie Rattlesnake (Crotalus viridis: Schmidt, Karl Peterson and D. D. Davis. 1941. Field Book of Snakes of the United States and Canada. C.P. Putnam and Sons, New York. 365pp.); Arizona Prairie Rattlesnake (Crotalus viridis nuntius: Schmidt, Karl Peterson and D. D. Davis. 1941. Field Book of Snakes of the United States and Canada. C.P. Putnam and Sons, New York. 365pp.); Prairie Rattlesnake (Crotalus viridis viridis: Schmidt, Karl Peterson and D. D. Davis. 1941. Field Book of Snakes of the United States and Canada. C.P. Putnam and Sons, New York. 365pp.); Prairie Rattlesnake (Crotalus viridis viridis: Wright, Albert Hazen. 1950. Common names of the snakes of the United States. Herpetologica 6(6):141-186); Confluent Rattlesnake (Crotalus viridis viridis: Wright, Albert Hazen. 1950. Common names of the snakes of the United States. Herpetologica 6(6):141-186); Massasauga (Crotalus viridis viridis: Wright, Albert Hazen. 1950. Common names of the snakes of the United States. Herpetologica 6(6):141-186); Large Prairie Rattlesnake (Crotalus viridis viridis: Wright, Albert Hazen. 1950. Common names of the snakes of the United States. Herpetologica 6(6):141-186); Spotted Rattlesnake (Crotalus viridis viridis: Wright, Albert Hazen. 1950. Common names of the snakes of the United States. Herpetologica 6(6):141-186); Common Rattlesnake (Crotalus viridis viridis: Wright, Albert Hazen. 1950. Common names of the snakes of the United States. Herpetologica 6(6):141-186); Great Basin Rattlesnake (Crotalus viridis viridis: Wright, Albert Hazen. 1950. Common names of the snakes of the United States. Herpetologica 6(6):141-186); Plains Rattlesnake (Crotalus viridis viridis: Wright, Albert Hazen. 1950. Common names of the snakes of the United States. Herpetologica 6(6):141-186); Prairie Rattler (Crotalus viridis viridis: Wright, Albert Hazen. 1950. Common names of the snakes of the United States. Herpetologica 6(6):141-186); Missouri Rattlesnake (Crotalus viridis viridis: Wright, Albert Hazen. 1950. Common names of the snakes of the United States. Herpetologica 6(6):141-186); Western Spotted Rattlesnake (Crotalus viridis viridis: Wright, Albert Hazen. 1950. Common names of the snakes of the United States. Herpetologica 6(6):141-186); Prairie Rattlesnake (Crotalus viridis: Schmidt, Karl P. 1953. A Check List of North American Amphibians and Reptiles. 6th Edition. University of Chicago Press, Chicago, Illinois. 280pp.); Prairie Rattlesnake (Crotalus viridis viridis: Schmidt, Karl P. 1953. A Check List of North American Amphibians and Reptiles. 6th Edition. University of Chicago Press, Chicago, Illinois. 280pp.);

Taxon Links:

  
Catalog of American Amphibians and Reptiles
  
The Reptile Database
  
NatureServe
  
iNaturalist
  
GenBank
  
USGS - Nonindigenous Aquatic Species Database

Selected References:
1818 Rafinesque, Constantine S. Further account of discoveries in natural history, in the western states. The American Monthly Magazine and Critical Review 4:39-42
1930 Klauber, Laurence M. New and renamed subspecies of Crotalus confluentus Say, with remarks on related species. Transactions of the San Diego Society of Natural History 6(3):95-144
1935 Klauber, Laurence M. A new subspecies of Crotalus confluentus, the Prairie Rattlesnake. Transactions of the San Diego Society of Natural History 8(13):75-90
1940 Gloyd, Howard K. The rattlesnakes, genera Sistrurus and Crotalus. Chicago Academy of Sciences Special Publication 4(1):1-266
1956 Klauber, Laurence M. Rattlesnakes. Their habits, life histories, and influence on mankind. 2 Volumes. University of California Press, Berkeley, California. pp.
1958 Woodbury, Angus M. The name Crotalus viridis concolor Woodbury. Copeia 1958(2):151
1971 Smith, Hobart M., R. L. Holland and R. L. Brown. The Prairie Rattlesnake in Baja California del Sur. Journal of Herpetology 5(3-4):200
1972 Klauber, Laurence M. Rattlesnakes. Their Habits, Life Histories, and Influence on Mankind. 2 Vols. 2nd ed. University of California Press, Berkeley and Los Angeles. pp.
1972 Baker, Robert J., George A. Mengden, and James J. Bull. Karyotypic studies of thirty-eight species of North American snakes . Copeia 1972(2):257-265
1975 Stewart, Glenn R. and Ronald S. Daniel. Microornamentation of lizard scales: Some variations and taxonomic correlations. Herpetologica 31(1):117-130
1984 Crabtree, Claude B. and Robert W. Murphy. Analysis of maternal-offspring allozymes in Crotalus viridis. Journal of Herpetology 18(1):75-80
1985 Fitch, Henry S. Observations on rattle size and demography of Prairie Rattlesnakes (Crotalus viridis) and Timber Rattlesnakes (Crotalus horridus) in Kansas. Occasional Papers of the University of Kansas Museum of Natural History (118):1-11
1988 Murphy, Robert W. and C. Ben Crabtree. Genetic identification of a natural hybrid rattlesnake: Crotalus scutulatus scutulatus X C. viridis viridis. Herpetologica 44(1):119-123
1991 Thireau, Michel. Types and historically important specimens of rattlesnakes in the Museum National D'Histoire Naturelle (Paris). Smithsonian Herpetological Information Service (87):1-10
2000 Pook, Catharine E., Wolfgang Wuster, and Roger S. Thorpe. Historical biogeography of the Western Rattlesnake (Serpentes: Viperidae: Crotalus viridis), inferred from mitochondrial DNA sequence information
. Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution 15(2):269-282
2001 Ashton, Kyle G. and Alan de Queiroz. Molecular systematics of the Western Rattlesnake, Crotalus viridis (Viperidae), with comments on the utility of the d-loop in phylogenetic studies of snakes Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution 21(2):176–189
2001 Ashton, Kyle G. Body size variation among mainland populations of the Western Rattlesnake (Crotalus viridis). Evolution 55(12):2523-2533
2002 Fitch, Henry S. A comparison of growth and rattle string in three species of rattlesnakes. Scientific Papers of the Natural History Museum, University of Kansas (24):1-6
2003 Tsai, Inn-Ho, Ying-Ming Wang, Yi-Hsuan Chen, and Anthony T. Tu. Geographic variations, cloning, and functional analyses of the venom acidic phospholipases A2 of Crotalus viridis viridis. Archives of Biochemistry and Biophysics (411):289-296
2004 Taggart, Travis W. and Curtis J. Schmidt. Life History. Crotalus viridis. New maximum size for entire range. Journal of Kansas Herpetology (12):18
2008 Smith, Matthew T. and Michael L. Collyer. Regional variation and sexual dimorphism in head form of the Prairie Rattlesnake (Crotalus viridis viridis): Comparisons using new analytical techniques and collection methods. Pages in The Biology of Rattlesnakes. Loma Linda University Press, Loma Linda, California. pp.
2010 Mackessy, Stephen P. Evolutionary trends in venom composition in the Western Rattlesnakes (Crotalus viridis sensu lato): Toxicity vs tenderizers. Toxicon 55(2010):1463-1474
2013 Goldenberg, Julianne R. Multilocus species delimitation and species tree inference within the Western Rattlesnake (Crotalus viridis) species complex. Thesis. San Diego State Univeristy, San Diego, California.. 81pp.
2021 Balchan, Neil R. Resistance to rattlesnake venoms in an eastern Colorado rodent community. Thesis. University of Northern Colorado, Greeley, Colorado. 143pp.
2023 Smith, Cara F., Zachary L. Nicolas, Kathleen Ivey, Blair W. Perry, Drew R. Schield, Neil R. Balchan, Joshua Parker, Kirk C. Hansen, Anthony J. Saviola, Todd A. Castoe, and Stephen P. Mackessy. Snakes on a plain: biotic and abiotic factors determine venom compositional variation in a wide-ranging generalist rattlesnake. BMC Biology 21(136):1-19
2024 Myers, Edward A., Rhett M. Rautsaw, Miguel Borja, Jason Jones, Christoph I. Grünwald, Matthew L. Holding, Felipe Grazziotin, and Christopher L. Parkinson. Phylogenomic discordance is driven by wide-spread introgression and incomplete lineage sorting during rapid species diversification within rattlesnakes (Viperidae: Crotalus and Sistrurus) Systematic Biology syae018:

THE CENTER FOR NORTH AMERICAN HERPETOLOGY — Accessed: Saturday 26 April 2025 22:55 CT