THE CENTER FOR NORTH AMERICAN HERPETOLOGY

Reptilia    Squamata (part-other lizards)    Crotaphytidae  

Great Basin Collared Lizard
Crotaphytus bicinctores Smith and Tanner, 1972
KROH-tah-fy-tus — bye-sink-TOR-ays

SSAR 9th Edition Comments:
 There are no current SSAR comments for this taxon.

Range maps are based on curated specimens and provided gratis by CNAH.
(Created by Travis W. Taggart; Version: 2024.03.03.18.29.10)
Download GeoJSON polygon range file: - 0.37 MB

Province/State Distribution:
United States: Arizona California Idaho Nevada Oregon Utah

Taxonomic Etymology:
Named for the two neck bands.
Crotaphytus — Greek krotaphos = “temple” or “side of the head” + phyton = “creature” — possibly referring to lateral head structure or shape.
bicinctores — Latin bi- = “two” + cinctus = “banded” — “two-banded,” referring to the paired black neck collars.

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:
1965 Weiner, Nancy J. and Hobart M. Smith. Comparative osteology and classification of the Crotaphytiform lizards. The American Midland Naturalist 73(1):170-187
1972 Smith, Nathan M. and Wilmer W. Tanner. Two new subspecies of Crotaphytus (Sauria: Iguanidae). Great Basin Naturalist 32(1):25-34
1972 Axtell, Ralph W. Hybridization between western collared lizards with a proposed taxonomic rearrangement. Copeia 1972(4):707-727
1975 Montanucci, Ricahrd R., Ralph W. Axtell, and Herbert C. Dessauer. Evolutionary divergence among collared lizards (Crotaphytus), with comments on the status of Gambelia. Herpetologica 31:336-347
1996 McGuire, Jimmy A. Phylogenetic systematics of crotaphytid lizards (Reptilia: Iguania: Crotaphytidae). Bulletin of the Carnegie Museum of Natural History 32:iv + 1-143
2007 McGuire, Jimmy A., Charles W. Linkem, Michelle S. Koo, Delbert W. Hutchison, A. Kristopher Lappin, David I. Orange, Julio Lemos-Espinal, Brett R. Riddle, and Jef R. Jaeger. Mitochondrial introgression and incomplete lineage sorting through space and time: Phylogenetics of Crotaphytid lizards. Evolution 61-(12):2879–2897

THE CENTER FOR NORTH AMERICAN HERPETOLOGY — Accessed: Friday 12 June 2026 15:09 CT