Crotalus catalinensis CLIFF, 1954

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Higher Taxa	Viperidae, Crotalinae, Colubroidea, Caenophidia, Alethinophidia, Serpentes, Squamata (snakes)
Subspecies
Common Names	E: Catalina Island Rattlesnake G: Santa-Catalina-Klapperschlange S: Cascabel de Santa Catalina
Synonym	Crotalus catalinensis CLIFF 1954 Crotalus catalinensis — LINER 1994 Crotalus catalinensis — MCDIARMID, CAMPBELL & TOURÉ 1999: 278 Hoserea (Crutchfieldus) catalinensis — HOSER 2009 Crotalus catalinensis — WILSON et al. 2013 Crotalus catalinensis — WALLACH et al. 2014: 189 Crotalus catalinensis — GARCÍA-PADILLA et al. 2025
Distribution	Mexico (restricted to Santa Catalina Island in the Gulf of California Type locality: "Isla Santa Catalina in the Gulf of California, [Baja California Sur] Mexico."
Reproduction	ovoviviparous
Types	Holotype: CAS-SUR 15631
Diagnosis	Diagnosis: This species is allied to the Crotalus atrox group, but differs from others of that group in being a stunted form, with a distinctive color pattern and oddly-shaped internasals. It can be distinguished from C. atrox by the excessively large postcanthal, which extends laterally to separate the preocular from the postnasal, from C. ruber ruber and C. ruber lucasensis in not having the first infralabials divided transversely, and from C. tortugensis both in having the dorsal blotches surrounded by well defined light scales and in having fewer punctations on the dorsal ground color (Cliff 1954).
Comment	Venomous! Nomenclature: Hoser’s 2009 classification and nomenclature has been rejected as unnecessary and unavailable by WÜSTER & BERNILS 2011.
Etymology	Named after the type locality.
References	Arnaud, Gustavo and Marcio Martins 2019. Living Without a Rattle: The Biology and Conservation of the Rattlesnake, Crotalus catalinensis, from Santa Catalina Island, Mexico. in: Lillywhite, H.B & Martins, M. (eds.) Islands and Snakes, OUP, pp. 241 ff. Avila-Villegas, H., M. Martins & G. Arnaud 2007. Feeding ecology of the endemic Rattleless Rattlesnake, Crotalus catalinensis, of Santa Catalina Island, Gulf of California, Mexico Copeia 2007 (1): 80-84. - get paper here Beaman, Kent R. and Nelson Wong 2001. Crotalus catalinensis Cliff Santa Catalina Island Rattless Rattlesnake. Catalogue of American Amphibians and Reptiles (733): 1-4 - get paper here Campbell, J.A. & Lamar, W.W. 1989. The Venomous Reptiles of Latin America. Comstock Publishing/Cornell University Press, Ithaca Cliff, Frank S. 1954. Snakes of the islands in the Gulf of California, Mexico. Transactions of the San Diego Society of Natural History 12 (5): 67-98 - 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 GARCÍA-PADILLA, ELI; JORGE H. VALDEZ VILLAVICENCIO, ANNY PERALTA GARCÍA 2018. Las Serpientes de Cascabel más allá del continente. Especies - 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 Kisser, P. 1980. Zur Kernntnis der Klapperschlangen. Herpetofauna 2 (5): 6-10 - get paper here Martins, Marcio; Gustavo Arnaud, and Hector Ávila-Villegas 2012. Juvenile Recruitment, Early Growth, and Morphological Variation in the Endangered Santa Catalina Island Rattlesnake Crotalus catalinensis. Herp. Cons. Biology 7 (3): - get paper here McDiarmid, R.W.; Campbell, J.A. & Touré,T.A. 1999. Snake species of the world. Vol. 1. [type catalogue] Herpetologists’ League, 511 pp. Meik, Jesse M and André Pires-daSilva 2009. Evolutionary morphology of the rattlesnake style. BMC Evolutionary Biology 2009, 9:35 - get paper here Meik, Jesse M. and Gordon W. Schuett 2016. Structure, Ontogeny, and Evolutionary Development of the Rattlesnake Rattle. nan - get paper here O’Shea, M. 2018. The Book of Snakes. Ivy Press / Quarto Publishing, London, - get paper here Peralta-García A, Valdez-Villavicencio JH, Fucsko LA, Hollingsworth BD, Johnson JD, Mata-Silva V, Rocha A, DeSantis DL, Porras LW, and Wilson LD. 2023. The herpetofauna of the Baja California Peninsula and its adjacent islands, Mexico: composition, distribution, and conservation status. Amphibian & Reptile Conservation 17(1&2): 57–142 Rabatsky, Ali, Travis LaDuc and Brad R. Moon. 2013. Crotalus catalinensis (Santa Catalina Island rattlesnake) diet. Herpetological Review 44 (2): 329-330 - get paper here Reyes-Velasco J., Cox C. L., Jones J. M., Borja M,, y 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 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. Wilson, Larry David; Vicente Mata-Silva, Jerry D. Johnson 2013. A conservation reassessment of the reptiles of Mexico based on the EVS measure. Amphibian & Reptile Conservation 7 (1): 1–47 - get paper here 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
External links	IUCN Red List National Center for Biotechnology Information Google images

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