Hurter's spadefoot toad or Hurter's spadefoot (''Scaphiopus hurteri'') is a

species In biology, a species is the basic unit of Taxonomy (biology), classification and a taxonomic rank of an organism, as well as a unit of biodiversity. A species is often defined as the largest group of organisms in which any two individuals of ...

American spadefoot toad The Scaphiopodidae are a family of American spadefoot toads, which are native to North America. The family is small, comprising only seven different species. The American spadefoot toads are of typical shape to most fossorial (or burrowing) fro ...

(family Scaphiopodidae) found in the south central

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(

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, Oklahoma); its range might extend to the adjacent northern

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. It was once classified as a subspecies of the eastern spadefoot toad ('' Scaphiopus holbrookii''), but it has been granted its own species status. The specific name ''hurterii'' is in honor of the Swiss-American naturalist and curator of the

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, Julius Hurter.

Habitat

The species occurs in areas of sandy, gravelly, or soft, light soils in wooded or unwooded terrain and in sandy open woodland and

savanna A savanna or savannah is a mixed woodland-grassland (i.e. grassy woodland) ecosystem characterised by the trees being sufficiently widely spaced so that the canopy does not close. The open canopy allows sufficient light to reach the ground to ...

as well as in

mesquite Mesquite is a common name for several plants in the genus '' Prosopis'', which contains over 40 species of small leguminous trees. They are native to dry areas in the Americas. They have extremely long roots to seek water from very far under g ...

scrub. During periods inactivity it burrows underground. Breeding takes place in temporary pools formed by heavy rains.

References

Scaphiopus Amphibians described in 1910 Amphibians of the United States Endemic fauna of the United States Fauna of the Southwestern United States Fauna of the Southeastern United States Fauna of the Plains-Midwest (United States) {{Mesobatrachia-stub