THE CENTER FOR NORTH AMERICAN HERPETOLOGY

Reptilia    Squamata (part-other lizards)    Crotaphytidae  

Sonoran Collared Lizard
Crotaphytus nebrius Axtell and Montanucci, 1977
KROH-tah-fy-tus — NEE-bree-us

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: 2024.03.03.18.51.53)
Download GeoJSON polygon range file: - 0.11 MB

Province/State Distribution:
United States: Arizona

Taxonomic Etymology:
Named for its coloration.
Crotaphytus — Greek krotaphos = “temple” (side of the head) + phyton = “creature” — possibly referencing head or jaw musculature.
nebrius — Latin nebrius = “fawn” or “young deer,” likely referring to its pale or spotted coloration.

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:
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
1977 Axtell, Ralph W. and Richard R. Montanucci. Crotaphytus collaris from the eastern Sonoran Desert: description of a previously unrecognized geographic race. Natural History Miscellanea. Chicago (201):1-8
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
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

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