THE CENTER FOR NORTH AMERICAN HERPETOLOGY
Loading taxon account
Retrieving account information and occurrence data...

Reptilia    Squamata (part-other lizards)    Anguidae  
Panamint Alligator Lizard
Elgaria panamintina (Stebbins, 1958)
EL-GAR-ee-ah — pan-ah-MIN-tee-nah
Taxon Links
iNaturalist
The Reptile Database
Catalog of American Amphibians and Reptiles
NatureServe
GenBank
USGS Nonindigenous Aquatic Species Database

SSAR 9th Edition Comments:
 The results of Feldman and Spicer (2006, Molecular Ecology 15: 2201–2222), based on mtDNA, indicating that E. panamintina is derived from within E. multicarinata, was corroborated by Leavitt et al. (2017, Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution 110: 104–121) using both mitochondrial and nuclear DNA sequences. (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.)

(,   Museum Voucher) (,   Observation) (,   Literature Record), (,   Citizen Science), (  Fossil)
Open icons indicate questionable records, including those with coordinate uncertainty greater than 10,000 m (approximately 6 miles). Click a marker to view metadata.
Occurrences:; 117 Total; 110 Museum; 7 Other

The locality database contains 8,094,832 records, and geographic and taxonomic errors exist. Logged-in, registered users may report a potential issue directly from the marker popup.
Shaded range maps are based on curated specimens and provided gratis by CNAH. (Version: 2023.09.08.15.14.30)
Download map data (GeoJSON):
Polygon Range File Museum Literature Fossil Personal Observation Citizen Science

Province/State Distribution:
United States: California

Taxonomic Etymology:
Named for the mountain range in eastern California where it is found.
Elgaria — An arbitrary or constructed name coined by Spencer Baird and Charles Girard, likely derived from Elgar or as a variant of Gerrhonotus.
panamintina — Named after the Panamint Mountains, part of the Basin and Range Province in eastern California. The Latinized suffix -ina or -inae denotes origin or association—“from the Panamints.”

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


Selected References:
1958 Stebbins, Robert C. A new alligator lizard from the Panamint Mountains, Inyo County, California. American Museum Novitates (1883):1-27
1988 Good, David A. Phylogenetic relationships among Gerrhonotine lizards: An analysis of external morphology. University of California Publications in Zoology (121):1-139
1988 Good, David A. Allozyme variation and phylogenetic relationships among the species of Elgaria (Squamata: Anguidae). Herpetologica 44(2):154-162
1996 Banta, Benjamin H, Clark R. Mahrdt, and Kent R. Beaman. Elgaria panamintina. Catalogue of American Amphibians and Reptiles (629):1-4
2006 Feldman, Chris R. and Greg S. Spicer. Comparative phylogeography of woodland reptiles in California: Repeated patterns of cladogenesis and population expansion. Molecular Ecology 15(8):2201–2222
2017 Leavitt, Dean H., Angela B. Marion, Bradford D. Hollingsworth, and Tod W. Reeder. Multilocus phylogeny of alligator lizards (Elgaria, Anguidae): Testing mtDNA introgression as the source of discordant molecular phylogenetic hypotheses. Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution 110(2017):104-121

THE CENTER FOR NORTH AMERICAN HERPETOLOGY — Accessed: Saturday 12 September 2026 02:04 CT
Site concept, design, and programming: Travis W. Taggart (CNAH President/Executive Director).
CNAH usage since 31 August 2026: 73,196 human page views • 37,662 visitors • 26,696 file accesses