Order Squamata
Suborder Sauria

Family Crotaphytidae / Subfamily Crotaphytinae

This family was previously (and is still sometimes) treated as a subfamily of the Iguanidae. However, Frost and Etheridge (1989) raised the group to family status and this has been widely accepted.

Photo: Crotaphytus collaris (female) © Arie van der Meijden

Distribution: Southwestern North America from eastern Oregon to the Mississippi River and south to northern Mexico.

Habitat: deserts and other rocky, arid areas.

Size: 10-14 cm cnout-vent length.

Food: Invertebrates (insects), but also lizards and other small vertebrates (especially Gambelia).

Behaviour: crotaphytid lizards use sqealing vocalizations when stressed (like some polychrotids, but unlike any other iguanid). Crotaphytus can use a form of bipedalism in moving among rocks.

Reproduction:

Related taxa: see the tree of iguanid lizards for relationships to other families.

Zoological definition (according to Frost & Etheridge, 1989): (1) maxillae not meeting anteromedially behind palatal portion of premaxilla; (2) lacrimal foramen not enlarged; (3) skull roof not strongly rugose, except in old Crotaphytus; (4) jugal and squamosal not broadly juxtaposed; (5) parietal roof trapezoidal; (6) parietal foramen in frontoparietal suture; (7) supratemporal sits on lateral sitde of supratemproal process of parietal; (8) nuchal endolymphatic sacs do not penetrate nuchal musculature; (9) dentary not expanded onto labial face of coronoid; (10) labial blade of coronoid poorly developed or absent; (11) anterior surangular foramen above posteriormost extent of dentary; (12) Meckel's groove not fused; (13) splenial relatively long anteriorly; (14) dentary and maxillary teeth pleurodont, not fused to underlying bone in adults; (15) palatine teeth present; (16) pterygoid teeth present; (17) posterior process of interclavicle not invested by sternum far anteriorly; (18) caudal autotomy fracture plane present (except in Crotaphytus), with transverse processes anterior to fracture planes; (19) posterior coracoid fenestra present; (20) sternal fontanelles very small or absent; (21) sternal ribs: 4; (22) postxiphisternal inscriptional ribs short; (23) interparietal scale not enlarged; (24) mid-dorsal scale row absent; (25) gular fold complete medially; (26) femoral pores present; (27) spinulate scale organs absent; (28) S-condition nasal apparatus; nasal vestibule long, S-shaped, concha present; (29) hemipenes unicapitate, unisulcate; (30) colic septa absent.

• Crotaphytus
• Gambelia

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References:

Frost,D.E. & Etheridge,R.E. (1989)
A Phylogenetic Analysis and Taxonomy of Iguanian Lizards (Reptilia: Squamata)
Univ. Kansas Mus. Nat. Hist. Misc. Publ. 81

McGuire, J. A. (1996)
Phylogenetic systematics of crotaphytid lizards (Reptilia: Iguania: Crotaphytidae).
Bulletin of Carnegie Museum of Natural History 32: 1-142

McGuire, Jimmy A. et al. (2007)
Mitochondrial introgression and incomplete lineage sorting through space and time: phylogenetics of crotaphytid lizards.
Evolution 61(12):2879-2897

Montanucci, R. R. (1969)
Remarks upon the Crotaphytus-Gambelia controversy (Sauria: Iguanidae).
Herpetologica 25: 308-314

Montanucci, R. R.;Axtell, R. W.;Dessauer, H. C. (1975)
Evolutionary divergence among collared lizards (Crotaphytus), with comments on the status of Gambelia.
Herpetologica 31 (3): 336-347

Robison, Wilber Gerald Jr & Tanner, Wilmer W. (1962)
A comparative study of the species of the genus CrotaphytusHolbrook (Iquanidae) [sic].
Brigham Young University Science Bulletin 2 (1): 1-31

Online Information:

• Crotaphytus.de