THE CENTER FOR NORTH AMERICAN HERPETOLOGY

Reptilia    Squamata (part)    Phrynosomatidae  

Round-tailed Horned Lizard
Phrynosoma modestum Girard in Baird and Girard, 1852

SSAR 9th Edition Comments:
 Author citation updated from Girard, 1852.

Range maps are based on curated specimens and provided gratis by CNAH.
(Created by Travis W. Taggart; Version: 2023.05.22.16.19.54)
Download GeoJSON polygon range file: - 0.48 MB

Province/State Distribution:
USA: Arizona Colorado New Mexico Oklahoma Texas

First instance(s) of published English names:
Little Horned Lizard (Phrynosoma modestum: 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); Least Horned Lizard (Phrynosoma modestum: 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.); Round-tailed Horned Toad (Phrynosoma modestum: Van Denburgh, John. 1922. The Reptiles of Western North America: An Account of the Species Known to Inhabit California and Oregon, Washinton, Idaho, Utah, Nevada, Arizona, British Columbia, Sonora, and Lower California. Volume I. Lizards. California Academy of Sciences, San Francisco. 556pp.); Bleached Horned Lizard (Phrynosoma modestum: 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:
1852 Baird, Spencer F. and Charles Girard. Characteristics of some new reptiles in the Museum of the Smithsonian Institution. Proceedings of the Academy of Natural Sciences, Philadelphia 6:68-70
1963 Lynn, R. T. Comparative behavior of the horned lizards, genus Phrynosoma, of the United States. Dissertation. University of Oklahoma, Norman, Oklahoma. 76pp.
1965 Lynn, R. T. A comparative study of the display behavior in Phrynosoma (Iguanidae). Southwestern Naturalist 10(1):25-30
1987 Montanucci, Richard R. A phylogenetic study of the horned lizards, genus Phrynosoma, based on skeletal and external morphology. Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County, Contributions in Science (390):1-36
1987 Clarke, Robert F. Second report of Phrynosoma modestum in Oklahoma. Bulletin of the Oklahoma Herpetological Society 12(1-4):16
1993 Wiens, John J. Phylogenetic relationships of phrynosomatid lizards and monophyly of the Sceloporus group. Copeia 1993(2):287-299
1996 Whiting, Martin J. and Dixon, James R. Phrynosoma modestum Catalogue of American Amphibians and Reptiles (630):1-6
1996 Montanucci, Richard R. Morphological variation in the gular fold in the horned lizard genus Phrynosoma (Iguania: Phrynosomatidae). Herpetologica 52(1):46-55
2001 Reeder, Tod W., and Richard R. Montanucci. Phylogenetic analysis of the horned lizards (Phrynosomatidae: Phrynosoma): Evidence from mitochondrial DNA and morphology. Copeia 2001(2):309-323
2004 Hodges, Wendy L. Evolution of viviparity in horned lizards (Phrynosoma): Testing the cold-climate hypothesis. Journal of Evolutionary Biology 17:1230–1237

THE CENTER FOR NORTH AMERICAN HERPETOLOGY — Accessed: Sunday 27 April 2025 11:40 CT