THE CENTER FOR NORTH AMERICAN HERPETOLOGY

Reptilia    Squamata (part)    Phrynosomatidae  

Prairie Lizard
Sceloporus consobrinus Baird and Girard, 1853

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: 2023.04.10.13.21.22)
Download GeoJSON polygon range file: - 1.77 MB

Province/State Distribution:
USA: Arkansas Colorado Kansas Louisiana Mississippi Missouri Nebraska New Mexico Oklahoma South Dakota Texas Wyoming

First instance(s) of published English names:
Western Lizard (Sceloporus consobrinus: Yarrow, Henry C. 1876. List of Skeletons and Crania in the Section of Comparative Anatomy of the United States Army Medical Museum for use during the International Exhibition of 1876 in Connection with the Representation of the Medical Department U.S. Army. Army Medical Museum, Washington, D. C. pp.); Marcy's Alligator Lizard (Sceloporus consobrinus: 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); Florida Alligator Lizard (Sceloporus floridanus: Beyer, George. 1900. Louisana herpetology. Proceedings of the Louisiana Society of Naturalists 1897-1899():24-46); Alligator Lizard (Sceloporus undulatus: Beyer, George. 1900. Louisana herpetology. Proceedings of the Louisiana Society of Naturalists 1897-1899():24-46); Marcy's Wave-lined Lizard (Sceloporus consobrinus: 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.); Marcy's Wave-lined Lizard (Sceloporus undulatus consobrinus: 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.); Alligator Lizard (Sceloporus undulatus: Hurter, Julius. 1911. Herpetology of Missouri. Transactions of the Academy of Science St. Louis 20(5):59-274); Striped Swift (Sceloporus consobrinus: 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.); Fence Lizard (Sceloporus consobrinus consobrinus: Strecker, John K., Jr. 1922. An annotated catalogue of the amphibians and reptiles of Bexar County, Texas. Bulletin Scientific Society of San Antonio (4):1-31); Spiny Swift (Sceloporus undulatus consobrinus: Brennan, Lawrence A. 1934. A check list of the amphibians and reptiles of Ellis County, Kansas. Transactions of the Kansas Academy of Science 37():189-191); Southern Prairie Lizard (Sceloporus undulatus consobrinus: Schmidt, Karl P. 1953. A Check List of North American Amphibians and Reptiles. 6th Edition. University of Chicago Press, Chicago, Illinois. 280pp.); Northern Prairie Lizard (Sceloporus undulatus garmani: 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:
1853 Baird, Spencer F. and Charles Girard. Reptiles. Pages 188-215 in Exploration of the Red River of Louisiana in the year 1852 Senate Executive Document, 1st Session 33rd Congress, Washington, D. C. pp.
1954 Bell, Edwin L. A preliminary report on the subspecies of the western fence lizard, Sceloporus occidentalis and its relationships to the eastern fence lizard, Sceloporus undulatus. Herpetologica 10:31-36
1956 Maslin, T. Paul. Sceloporus undulatus erythrocheilus ssp. nov. (Reptilia, Iguanidae) from Colorado. Herpetologica 12(4):291-294
1960 McCoy, Clarence J., Jr. Systematics and variation of Sceloporus undulatus in Oklahoma. Thesis. Oklahoma State University, Stillwater. 55pp.
1961 McCoy, Clarence J., Jr. Distribution of the subspecies of Sceloporus undulatus (Reptilia: Iguanidae) in Oklahoma. Southwestern Naturalist 6(2):79-85
1964 Taylor, Harry L., and J. Martin Walker. Reevaluation of sexual chromatic differences in the lizard Sceloporus undulatus erythrocheilus Maslin. Copeia 1964(2):457
1965 Taylor, D. R. Display patterns of various subspecies of the Eastern Fence Lizard Sceloporus undulatus. Thesis. Emporia State University, Emporia, Kansas. pp.
1978 Rachuk, N. A. Genetic variation in Sceloporus undulatus: Effects of gene flow, isolation, and selection. Thesis. Oklahoma State University, Stillwater. 103pp.
1983 Cole, Charles J. Specific status of the North American fence lizards, Sceloporus undulatus and Sceloporus occidentalis, with comments on chromosome variation. American Museum Novitates (2768):1-13
1991 Smith, Hobart M., Matthew S. Rand, J. David Drew, Bruce D. Smith, David Chiszar, and Christine M. Dwyer. Relictual intergrades between the Northern Prairie Lizard (Sceloporus undulatus garmani) and the Redlipped Plateau Lizard (S. u. erythrocheilus) in Colorado. Northwestern Naturalist 72:42746
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
1996 Bell, Edwin L. Descriptions of neotypes for Sceloporus undulatus undulatus, the Southern Fence Lizard, and Sceloporus undulatus hyacinthinus, the Northern Fence Lizard, and a lectotype for Sceloporus undulatus garmani, the Northern Prairie Lizard. Bulletin of the Maryland Herpetological Society 32:81-103
2000 Bell, Edwin L. and Hobart M. Smith. Variation and intergradation of Northern and Southern Prairie Lizards in southwestern Oklahoma: Designation of neotype for Sceloporus undulatus consobrinus, from Quartz Mountain State Park, Kiowa County, Oklahoma. Bulletin of the Maryland Herpetological Society 36:20-34
2002 Leaché, Adam D. and Tod W. Reeder. Molecular systematics of the Eastern Fence Lizard (Sceloporus undulatus): A comparison of parsimony, likelihood, and bayesian approaches. Systematic Biology 51(1):44–68
2002 Miles, Donald B., Robert Noecker, Willem M. Roosenburg, and Matthew M. White. Genetic relationships among populations of Sceloporus undulatus fail to support present subspecific designations. Herpetologica 58(3):277-292
2009 Leaché, Adam D. Species tree discordance traces to phylogeographic clade boundaries in North American Fence Lizards (Sceloporus). Systematic Biology 58(6):547-559
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

THE CENTER FOR NORTH AMERICAN HERPETOLOGY — Accessed: Saturday 26 April 2025 23:28 CT