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Crotalus totonacus GLOYD & KAUFFELD, 1940

IUCN Red List - Crotalus totonacus - Least Concern, LC
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Higher TaxaViperidae, Crotalinae, Colubroidea, Caenophidia, Alethinophidia, Serpentes, Squamata (snakes)
Subspecies 
Common NamesE: Totonacan Rattlesnake
S: Tepocolciatl 
SynonymCrotalus totonacus GLOYD & KAUFFELD 1940
Crotalus durissus totonacus — SMITH & TAYLOR 1945: 239
Crotalus basiliscus totonacus — TAYLOR 1950: 453
Crotalus durissus totonacus — KLAUBER 1952: 76
Crotalus durissus neoleonensis HARRIS & SIMMONS 1978
Crotalus totonacus — CAMPBELL & LAMAR 2004
Crotalus totonacus — QUIJADA-MASCAREÑAS & WÜSTER 2006
Crotalus totonacus — VALENCIA-HERNÁNDEZ et al. 2007
Crotalus totonicus — MEIK & DASILVA 2009 (in error)
Caudisona (Smythus) totonacus — HOSER 2009
Crotalus totonacus — WALLACH et al. 2014: 195
Crotalus totonacus — GARCÍA-PADILLA et al. 2025 
DistributionMexico (S Tamaulipas, SE San Luis Potosi, N Veracruz, Quéretaro, Hidalgo, Nuevo León)

Type locality: “Panaca Island, about 75 miles south of Tampico, Veracruz, Mexico, 12 miles inland from Cabo Rojo."  
Reproductionovoviviparous 
TypesHolotype: CHAS 4469 (given as CA 4469 in McDiarmid et al. 1999 and Wallach et al. 2014). 
DiagnosisUnfortunately we had to temporarily remove additional information as this was scraped by multiple AI companies who sell that data to their customers. These details, e.g. detailed descriptions or comparisons (about 4579 characters), are available for collaborators and contributors. Please contact us for details. 
CommentNomenclature: Hoser’s 2009 classification and nomenclature has been rejected as unnecessary and unavailable by WÜSTER & BERNILS 2011. HARRIS & SIMMONS 1978 cited “Crotalus durissus neoleonensis ZERTUCHE in press”, a description that apparently was never published. 
EtymologyThe specific epithet is named after the Totonac Indians of northeastern Mexico. The ending -us is a masculine adjective. 
References
  • Anderson, Christopher G. and Eli Greenbaum 2012. Phylogeography of Northern Populations of the Black-Tailed Rattlesnake (Crotalus molossus Baird And Girard, 1853), With the Revalidation of C. ornatus Hallowell, 1854. Herpetological Monographs 26 (1): 19-57. - get paper here
  • Arenas, Carlos Yañez; A. Townsend Peterson, Pierre Mokondoko, Octavio Rojas-Soto, Enrique Martínez-Meyer 2014. The Use of Ecological Niche Modeling to Infer Potential Risk Areas of Snakebite in the Mexican State of Veracruz. PLoS One 9 (6): e100957. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0100957 - get paper here
  • Campbell, Jonathan A. and William W. Lamar 2004. The Venomous Reptiles of the Western Hemisphere, 2 vols. Comstock (Cornell University Press), Ithaca, NY, 962 pp. [review in Science 305: 182]
  • Carbajal-Márquez, R. A., G. E. Quintero-Díaz, and G. Martínez-De La Vega. 2017. Crotalus totonacus Gloyd and Kauffeld, 1940. Diet. Mesoamerican Herpetology 4 (3): 649–650 - get paper here
  • Carbajal-Márquez, R. A., Sigala-Rodríguez, J. J., Reyes-Velasco, J., Jones, J. M., Montaño-Ruvalcaba, C., Fernandez-Badillo, L., & Borja-Jiménez, J. M. 2023. New dietary records for three species in the Crotalus molossus species complex (Serpentes: Viperidae). Phyllomedusa: Journal of Herpetology, 22(1), 81-86 - get paper here
  • Cruz-Elizalde R, Ramírez-Bautista A, Pineda-López R, Mata-Silva V, DeSantis DL, García-Padilla E, Johnson JD, Rocha A, Fucsko LA, Wilson LD. 2022. The herpetofauna of Querétaro, Mexico: composition, distribution, and conservation status. Amphibian & Reptile Conservation 16(1) [General Section]: 148–192 (e308) - get paper here
  • Dixon, James R. and Julio A. Lemos-Espinal 2010. Amphibians and reptiles of the state of Queretaro, Mexico. Tlalnepantla UNAM, 428 pp.
  • Farr, William L., Manuel Nevárez-De Los Reyes, David Lazcano and Sadot Edgardo Ortiz-Hernández. 2015. Crotalus totonacus (Totonacan rattlesnake) diet. Herpetological Review 46 (1): 103 - get paper here
  • Farr, William L.; Manuel Nevárez de los Reyes, Javier Banda-Leal, and David Lazcano 2015. The distribution of Crotalus totonacus in Nuevo León, Mexico. Mesoamerican Herpetology 2 (3): 243–251. - get paper here
  • Frías, Josefina Ramos, Leonardo Fernández-Badillo, Melany Aguilar López and Jorge Iván Ángeles Escudero. 2015. Geographic Distribution: Crotalus totonacus (Totonacan rattlesnake). Herpetological Review 46 (2): 219 - get paper here
  • García-Padilla, E., Heredia-López, I., Villalobos-Juárez, I., Lazcano, D., & Fucsko, L. A. 2025. Notes on the Herpetofauna of Mexico 48: From Sacred to Scorned---A Study of the Mexican Rattlesnake’s Changing Status. Bulletin of the Chicago Herpetological Society, 60(3), 25-30 - get paper here
  • Gloyd, Howard K.;Kauffeld, Carl F. 1940. A new rattlesnake from Mexico. Bulletin of the Chicago Academy of Sciences 6 (2): 11-14 + 1 plate
  • Harris, Herbert S. & Simmons, Robert S. 1978. A preliminary account of the rattlesnakes with the descriptions of four new subspecies. Bull. Maryland Herp. Soc. 14 (3): 105-211 [1977] - get paper here
  • Heimes, P. 2016. Snakes of Mexico. Chimaira, Frankfurt, 572 pp
  • Hoser, R. 2009. A reclassification of the rattlesnakes; species formerly exclusively referred to the genera Crotalus and Sistrurus. Australasian J. Herpetol. 3: 1-21 - get paper here
  • Klauber, Laurence M. 1952. Taxonomic studies on rattlesnakes of Mainland Mexico. Bulletins of the Zoological Society of San Diego (26): 1-143 - get paper here
  • Lemos-Espinal JA, Smith GR, Woolrich-Piña GA 2018. Amphibians and reptiles of the state of San Luis Potosí, Mexico, with comparisons with adjoining states. ZooKeys 753: 83-106 - get paper here
  • Lemos-Espinal, Julio A. and James R. Dixon 2013. Amphibians and Reptiles of San Luis Potosí. Eagle Mountain Publishing, xii + 300 pp. - get paper here
  • Lemos-Espinal, Julio A., Geoffrey R. Smith 2015. Amphibians and reptiles of the state of Hidalgo, Mexico. Check List 11 (3): 1642 - get paper here
  • Meik, Jesse M and André Pires-daSilva 2009. Evolutionary morphology of the rattlesnake style. BMC Evolutionary Biology 2009, 9:35 - get paper here
  • Muñoz-Mora, V. H., Suárez-Atilano, M., Maltagliati, F., Ramírez-Corona, F., Carbajal-Saucedo, A., Percino-Daniel, R., ... & Sunny, A. 2022. A tale about vipers’ tails: phylogeography of black-tailed rattlesnakes. Herpetozoa, 35, 141-153 - get paper here
  • Nevárez-de-los-Reyes, Manuel, David Lazcano, Elí García-Padilla, Vicente Mata-Silva, Jerry D. Johnson and Larry David Wilson. 2016. The Herpetofauna of Nuevo León, Mexico: Composition, Distribution, and Conservation. Mesoamerican Herpetology 3 (3): 558–638 - get paper here
  • Quijada-Mascareñas & Wüster, W. 2006. Crotalus durissus complex: from Yucatan to Patagonia: the natural history of the Neotropical rattlesnake. Reptilia (GB) (49): 66-73 - get paper here
  • Reyes-Velasco J., Cox C. L., Jones J. M., Borja M. & Campbell J. A. 2022. How many species of rattlesnakes are there in the Crotalus durissus species group (Serpentes: Crotalidae)? Revista Latinoamericana de Herpetología 5 (1): 43-55 - get paper here
  • Smith, Hobart M. & Taylor, Edward H. 1945. An annotated checklist and key to the snakes of Mexico. Bull. US Natl. Mus. (187): iv + 1-239 - get paper here
  • Taylor, E. H. 1950. Second contribution to the herpetology of San Luis Potosi. Univ. Kansas Sci. Bull. 33 (11): 441-457 - get paper here
  • Tepos-Ramírez M, Garduño-Fonseca FS, Peralta-Robles CA, García-Rubio OR, Cervantes Jiménez R 2023. Annotated checklist of amphibians and reptiles from Querétaro, Mexico, including new records, and comments on controversial species. Check List 19(2): 269-292 - get paper here
  • Terán-Juárez, Sergio A., Elí García Padilla, Vicente Mata-Silva, Jerry D. Johnson and Larry David Wilson. 2016. The herpetofauna of Tamaulipas, Mexico: composition, distribution, and conservation status. Mesoamerican Herpetology 3 (1): 43–113 - get paper here
  • Terán-Juárez, Sergio A.; Elí García-Padilla, Francisco E. Leyto-Delgado, and Leccinum J. García- Morales 2015. New records and distributional range extensions for amphibians and reptiles from Tamaulipas, Mexico. Mesoamerican Herpetology 2 (2): 208-214 - get paper here
  • Torres-Hernández, LA, Ramírez-Bautista A, Cruz-Elizalde R, Hernández-Salinas U, Berriozabal-Islas C, DeSantis DL, Johnson JD, Rocha A, García-Padilla E, Mata-Silva V, Fucsko LA, and Wilson LD. 2021. The herpetofauna of Veracruz, Mexico: composition, distribution, and conservation status. Amphibian & Reptile Conservation 15(2) [General Section]: 72–155 - get paper here
  • VALENCIA-HERNÁNDEZ, Ángel Alberto; Irene GOYENECHEA & Jesús Martín CASTILLO-CERÓN 2007. NOTES ON SCUTELLATION, LENGTH, AND DISTRIBUTION OF RATTLESNAKES (SERPENTES: VIPERIDADE: CROTALUS) IN THE STATE OF HIDALGO, MEXICO. Acta Zoológica Mexicana (n.s.) 23 (3):29-33 - get paper here
  • Wallach, Van; Kenneth L. Williams , Jeff Boundy 2014. Snakes of the World: A Catalogue of Living and Extinct Species. [type catalogue] Taylor and Francis, CRC Press, 1237 pp.
  • Wüster, W. & Bérnils, R.S. 2011. On the generic classification of the rattlesnakes, with special reference to the Neotropical Crotalus durissus complex (Squamata: Viperidae). ZOOLOGIA 28 (4): 417–419 - get paper here
 
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