THE CENTER FOR NORTH AMERICAN HERPETOLOGY

Reptilia    Squamata (part-other lizards)    Phrynosomatidae  

Chihuahuan Desert Spiny Lizard
Sceloporus bimaculosus Phelan and Brattstrom, 1955
sel-oh-PORE-us — bye-mak-yoo-LOH-sus

SSAR 9th Edition Comments:
 See note on S. magister. The standard English name has been changed from “Twin-spotted Spiny Lizard” to reflect the geographic distribution of the species. (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.)

Range maps are based on curated specimens and provided gratis by CNAH.
(Created by Travis W. Taggart; Version: 2023.04.10.13.21.22)
Download GeoJSON polygon range file: - 0.28 MB

Province/State Distribution:
United States: Arizona New Mexico Texas

Taxonomic Etymology:
Named for its paired dorsal markings.
Sceloporus — rom Greek skelos (σκελός), “leg,” and poros (πόρος), “pore,” referring to the conspicuous femoral pores found on the legs of males.
bimaculosus — From Latin bi- (“two”) and maculosus (“spotted”), meaning “two-spotted” or “twin-spotted.” Refers to the paired dark blotches or marks on either side of the dorsum.

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:
1955 Phelan, Robert L., and Baynard H. Brattstrom. Geographic variation in Sceloporus magister. Herpetologica 11(1):1-14
1992 Sites, Jack W., Jr., J. W. Archie, C. J. Cole, and O. Flores Villela. A review of phylogenetic hypotheses for lizards of the genus Sceloporus (Phrynosomatidae): Implications for ecological and evolutionary studies. Bulletin of the American Museum of Natural History (213):1-110
1993 Wiens, John J. Phylogenetic relationships of phrynosomatid lizards and monophyly of the Sceloporus group. Copeia 1993(2):287-299
2010 Wiens, John J., Caitlin A. Kuczynski, Saad Arif, and Tod W. Reeder. Phylogenetic relationships of phrynosomatid lizards based on nuclear and mitochondrial data, and a revised phylogeny for Sceloporus. Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution 54:150-161
2010 Leaché, Adam D. and Jack W. Sites. Chromosome evolution and diversification in North American Spiny Lizards (genus Sceloporus). Cytogenetic and Genome Research 127(2-4):166-191
2010 Leaché, Adam D. Species trees for spiny lizards (Genus Sceloporus): Identifying points of concordance and conflict between nuclear and mitochondrial data. Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution 2010(54):162-171
2013 Lambert, Shea M. and John J. Wiens. Evolution of viviparity: A phylogenetic test of the cold-climate hypothesis in Phrynosomatid lizards. Evolution 67(9):2614–2630
2024 Pavón-Vázquez, Carlos J., Qaantah Rana, Keaka Farleigh, Erika Crispo, Mimi Zeng, Jeevanie Liliah, Daniel Mulcahy, Alfredo Ascanio, Tereza Jezkova, Adam D Leaché, Tomas Flouri, Ziheng Yang, and Christopher Blair. Gene flow and isolation in the arid nearctic revealed by genomic analyses of Desert Spiny Lizards. Systematic Biology 73(2):323-342

THE CENTER FOR NORTH AMERICAN HERPETOLOGY — Accessed: Friday 05 December 2025 15:53 CT