Baur's short-horned lizard (''Phrynosoma bauri'') is a

species A species () is often defined as the largest group of organisms in which any two individuals of the appropriate sexes or mating types can produce fertile offspring, typically by sexual reproduction. It is the basic unit of Taxonomy (biology), ...

of small

horned lizard ''Phrynosoma'', whose members are known as the horned lizards, horny toads, or horntoads, is a genus of North American lizards and the type genus of the Family (biology), family Phrynosomatidae. Their common names refer directly to their horns or ...

that is

endemic Endemism is the state of a species being found only in a single defined geographic location, such as an island, state, nation, country or other defined zone; organisms that are indigenous to a place are not endemic to it if they are also foun ...

to the

United States The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 U.S. state, states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 ...

Taxonomy

Populations assigned to this species were long classified in the pygmy short-horned lizard (''P. douglasii'') and

greater short-horned lizard The greater short-horned lizard (''Phrynosoma hernandesi)'', also commonly known as the mountain short-horned lizard or Hernández's short-horned lizard, is a species of lizard in the family Phrynosomatidae. The species is endemic to western Nor ...

(''P. hernandesi''), within several different subspecies formerly assigned to ''P. douglasii''. However, it was described as a distinct species, ''Phrynosoma bauri'', by Richard R. Montanucci in 2015 based on morphological evidence. It may be a

hybrid species Hybrid speciation is a form of speciation where hybridization between two different species leads to a new species, reproductively isolated from the parent species. Previously, reproductive isolation between two species and their parents was tho ...

arising from ancient hybridization between the Great Plains short-horned lizard (''P. brevirostris'') and desert short-horned lizard (''P. ornatissimum''). It is named after Bertrand E. Baur, a longtime friend of the author and studier of ''Phrynosoma'' who passed away from injuries sustained in a car accident in 2013. The distinctiveness of ''P. bauri'' is still highly contested as it clashes with genetic evidence finding it to fall within ''P. hernandesi'', and thus the

American Society of Ichthyologists and Herpetologists The American Society of Ichthyologists and Herpetologists (ASIH) is an international learned society devoted to the scientific studies of ichthyology (study of fish) and herpetology (study of reptiles and amphibians). The primary emphases of th ...

classified it as a subspecies of ''P. hernandesi'' in 2017, and

Gunther Köhler Gunther Köhler (born 20 May 1965 in Hanau) is a German Herpetology, herpetologist. His research is primarily focused in Central America and in the West Indies. Career In 1995, Köhler received a doctorate in natural sciences at the Goethe Univers ...

synonymized it with ''P. hernandesi'' in 2021; however, the

Reptile Database The Reptile Database is a scientific database that collects taxonomic information on all living reptile species (i.e. no fossil species such as dinosaur Dinosaurs are a diverse group of reptiles of the clade Dinosauria. They first appeared ...

still recognizes it as a distinct species.

Distribution and habitat

It ranges from southern

Wyoming Wyoming ( ) is a landlocked U.S. state, state in the Mountain states, Mountain West subregion of the Western United States, Western United States. It borders Montana to the north and northwest, South Dakota and Nebraska to the east, Idaho t ...

and

Nebraska Nebraska ( ) is a landlocked U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern region of the United States. It borders South Dakota to the north; Iowa to the east and Missouri to the southeast, both across the Missouri River; Ka ...

south through eastern

Colorado Colorado is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States. It is one of the Mountain states, sharing the Four Corners region with Arizona, New Mexico, and Utah. It is also bordered by Wyoming to the north, Nebraska to the northeast, Kansas ...

to northern

New Mexico New Mexico is a state in the Southwestern United States, Southwestern region of the United States. It is one of the Mountain States of the southern Rocky Mountains, sharing the Four Corners region with Utah, Colorado, and Arizona. It also ...

. It inhabits

shortgrass prairie The shortgrass prairie is an ecosystem located in the Great Plains of North America. The two most dominant grasses in the shortgrass prairie are blue grama (''Bouteloua gracilis'') and buffalograss (''Bouteloua dactyloides''), the two less domin ...

pinyon–juniper woodland Pinyon–juniper woodland, also spelled piñon–juniper woodland, is a biome found mid-elevations in arid regions of the Western United States, characterized by being an open forest dominated by low, bushy, evergreen Juniperus, junipers, pinyon ...

, and

pine A pine is any conifer tree or shrub in the genus ''Pinus'' () of the family Pinaceae. ''Pinus'' is the sole genus in the subfamily Pinoideae. ''World Flora Online'' accepts 134 species-rank taxa (119 species and 15 nothospecies) of pines as cu ...

douglas fir The Douglas fir (''Pseudotsuga menziesii'') is an evergreen conifer species in the pine family, Pinaceae. It is the tallest tree in the Pinaceae family. It is native to western North America and is also known as Douglas-fir, Douglas spruce, Or ...

forest.

Description

It can be distinguished from other members of the ''P. douglasii'' complex by its short snout and several other features of the skull, moderately short, upward-pointed cephalic horns, and the coloration of its spots.

References

{{taxonbar, from=Q25388882 Phrynosoma Lizards of North America Endemic reptiles of the United States Reptiles described in 2015 Taxa named by Richard R. Montanucci