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Ctenosaura hemilopha (COPE, 1863)

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Higher TaxaIguanidae, Iguania, Sauria, Squamata (lizards)
Subspecies 
Common NamesE: Baja California Spiny- tailed Iguana
S: Garrobo del Cabo 
SynonymCyclura (Ctenosaura) hemilopha COPE 1863: 105
Ctenosaura hemilopha — COPE 1866: 312
Ctenosaura interrupta BOCOURT 1882
Ctenosaura hemilopha — BOULENGER 1885: 197
Ctenosaura hemilopha — VAN DENBURGH 1895: 88
Ctenosaura insulana DICKERSON 1919: 462
Ctenosaura hemilopha — BAILEY 1928: 17
Ctenosaura hemilopha insulana — LOWE & NORRIS 1955
Ctenosaura hemilopha interrupta — LOWE & NORRIS 1955
Ctenosaura hemilopha hemilopha — SMITH 1972
Ctenosaura hemilopha — STEBBINS 1985: 236
Ctenosaura hemilopha — LINER 1994
Ctenosaura (Ctenosaura) hemilopha — KÖHLER et al. 2000
Ctenosaura (Ctenosaura) hemilopha — KÖHLER 2003
Ctenosaura hemilopha interrupta — LINER 2007
Ctenosaura hemilopha hemilopha — LINER 2007
Ctenosaura hemilopha — HEIMES 2022 
DistributionNW Mexico (SE Baja California Sur, several islands in the Gulf of California, W Chihuahua)

Type locality: Cape St. Lucas, Baja California.

insulana: Isla Cerralvo off the east cost of the Cape Region of Baja California.  
Reproductionoviparous 
TypesSyntypes: USNM 529 (4), 69489
Holotype: USNM 64439; given as AMNH 2694, male; paratype: AMNH 5641, female [Ctenosaura insulana] 
DiagnosisDiagnosis: Bailey 1928: 17.


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CommentSCHMIDT (1922) and GRISMER (1999) synonymized Ctenosaura insulana with Ctenosaura hemilopha. GRISMER (1999) also elevated conspicuosa, macrolopha, and nolascensis to full (evolutionary) species status.

Distribution: not in Sonora fide Lemos-Espinal et al. 2019. Not in Sinaloa (Lemos-Espinal & Smith 2020). 
EtymologyNamed after Greek hemi- (ἡμι-), half + Greek lophia (λοφίἆ), crest, headdress. [“...Crest highest on the nape, where it is composed of high compressed processes; on the anterior fourth of the back they become reduced to a median series of compressed scales, which are undistinguishable behind the middle of the back...”]. 
References
  • Alberts, A.C.; Carter, R.L.; Hayes, W.K. & Martins, E.P. (eds.) 2004. Iguanas - Biology and Conservation. University of California Press, 356 pp. - get paper here
  • Avery, D. F.; Tanner, W. W. 1971. Evolution of the iguanine lizards (Sauria, Iguanidae) as determined by osteological and myological characters. Brigham Young University Science Bulletin 12 (3): 1-79
  • Bailey, J. W. 1928. A revision of the lizards of the genus Ctenosaura. Proc. US Natl. Mus. 73 (2733): 1-55. - get paper here
  • Blázquez, M.C.; Rodríguez Estrella, R. & Munguía VEga, A. 2006. Characterization of 10 microsatellite loci in the spiny-tailed iguana Ctenosaura hemilopha. Molecular Ecology Notes 6: 753–755 - get paper here
  • Bocourt, M. F 1882. Note sur les espèces appartenant au genre Ctenosaura. Le Naturaliste 2: 47 - get paper here
  • Boulenger, G.A. 1885. Catalogue of the lizards in the British Museum (Natural History). Vol. 2, Second edition. London, xiii+497 pp. - get paper here
  • Buckley, Larry J.; Kevin de Queiroz, Tandora D. Grant, Bradford D. Hollingsworth, John B. Iverson (Chair, <br>Stesha A. Pasachnik, and Catherine L. Stephen (Iguana Taxonomy Working Group, ITWG 2016. A Checklist of the Iguanas of the World (Iguanidae; Iguaninae). Herp. Cons. Biol. 11 (Monograph 6) - get paper here
  • Cook, David G. and Dennis Haussler. 2013. Ctenosaura hemilopha (Baja California spiny-tailed iguana) dispersal phenomenon. Herpetological Review 44 (2): 321-322 - get paper here
  • Cope, E.D. 1863. Descriptions of new American Squamata in the Museum of the Smtihsonian Institution. Proc. Acad. Nat. Sci. Philadelphia 15 [1863]: 100-106 - get paper here
  • Cope, E.D. 1867. On the REPTILIA and BATRACHIA of the Sonoran Province of the Nearctic Region. Proc. Acad. Nat. Sci. Philadelphia 18 [1866]: 300-314 - get paper here
  • Cope, E.D. 1886. On the species of Iguaninae. Proc. Amer. Philos. Soc. 23 (122): 261-271 - get paper here
  • de Queiroz K 1995. Checklist and key to the extant species of Mexican iguanas (Reptilia: Iguaninae). Publ. Esp. Mus. Zool. Univ. Nac. Autón. México 9: 1-48
  • Dickerson, M. C. 1919. Diagnoses of twenty-three new species and a new genus of lizards from Lower California. Bull. Amer. Mus. Nat. Hist. 41 (10): 461-477 - get paper here
  • García-Padilla E, DeSantis DL, Rocha A, Mata-Silva V, Johnson JD, Wilson LD. 2020. Conserving the Mesoamerican herpetofauna: the most critical case of the priority level one endemic species. Amphibian & Reptile Conservation 14(2) [General Section]: 73–132 (e240) - get paper here
  • Grismer, L. Lee. 1999. An evolutionary classification of reptiles on islands in the Gulf of California, México. Herpetologica 55 (4): 446-469 - get paper here
  • Hardy, L.M., & McDiarmid, R.W. 1969. The amphibians and reptiles of Sinaloa, Mexico. Univ. Kansas Publ. Mus. Nat. Hist. 18 (3): 39-252. - get paper here
  • Heimes, P. 2022. LIZARDS OF MEXICO - Part 1 Iguanian lizards. Edition Chimaira, Frankfurt Am Main, 448 pp. - get paper here
  • Jones, L.L. & Lovich, R.E. 2009. Lizards of the American Southwest. A photographic field guide. Rio Nuevo Publishers, Tucson, AZ, 568 pp. [review in Reptilia 86: 84] - get paper here
  • Köhler, G.; W. Schroth & B. Streit 2000. Systematics of the Ctenosaura group of lizards (Reptilia: Sauria: Iguanidae). Amphibia-Reptilia 21 (2): 177-191 - get paper here
  • Lemos-Espinal, J.A. & Smith, H.M. 2007. Amphibians and reptiles of the state of Chihuahua, Mexico. Universidad Nacional Autonoma de Mexico, 613 pp.
  • Leviton, Alan E.; Banta, Benjamin H. 1964. Midwinter reconnaissance of the herpetofauna of the Cape Region of Baja California, Mexico. Proc. Cal. Acad. Sci. 30 (7): 127-156 - get paper here
  • Lovich, R.E.; Grismer, L.L. & Danemann, G. 2009. CONSERVATION STATUS OF THE HERPETOFAUNA OF BAJA CALIFORNIA, MÉXICO AND ASSOCIATED ISLANDS IN THE SEA OF CORTEZ AND PACIFIC OCEAN. Herp. Cons. Biol. 4 (3):358-378 - get paper here
  • Lowe,C.H. and Norris,K.S. 1955. Analysis of the herpetofauna of Baja California, Mexico. III. New and revived reptilian subspecies of Isla San Esteban, Gulf of California, Sonora, Mexico, with notes on other islands in the Gulf of California. Herpetologica 11: 89-96 - get paper here
  • Malone, Catherine L.; Víctor Hugo Reynoso, Larry Buckley 2017. Never judge an iguana by its spines: Systematics of the Yucatan spiny tailed iguana, Ctenosaura defensor (Cope, 1866). Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution 115: 27-39 - get paper here
  • McCoy, C. J.; Flores-Villela, O. A. 1985. Amphibians and reptiles of the Seese and Mocino expedition: a lost chapter in Mexican herpetology. Annals of the Carnegie Museum 54 (5): 189-193 - get paper here
  • McDiarmid, R.W., Copp, J.F., & Breedlove, D.E. 1976. Notes on the herpetofauna of western Mexico: new records from Sinaloa and the Tres Marias Islands. Contributions in Science, Los Angeles (275): 1-17 - get paper here
  • Mocquard, M.F. 1899. Contribution a la faune herpétologique de la Basse-Californie. Nouv. Arch. Mus. Hist. Natur.Paris, 4th Series, Vol. 1: 297-343 + plates XI-XIII - 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
  • Reynoso, V. H., González Hernández, A. & López Forment, W. 2012. Geographic distribution: Ctenosaura hemilopha (Cape spiny-tailed iguana). Herpetological Review 43: 305 - get paper here
  • Ruiz-Campos, Gorgonio and Jorge H. Valdez-Villavicencio. 2011. Geographic Distribution: Ctenosaura hemilopha (Baja California spiny-tailed iguana). Herpetological Review 42 (3): 391 - get paper here
  • Schmidt, Karl Patterson 1922. The Amphibians and Reptiles of Lower California and the Neighboring Islands. Bull. Amer. Mus. Nat. Hist. 46 (11): 607-707 - get paper here
  • Smith, H.M. 1935. Miscellaneous notes on Mexican lizards. Univ. Kansas Sci. Bull. 22: 119-156 - get paper here
  • Smith, Hobart M. 1946. Handbook of Lizards: Lizards of the United States and of Canada. Comstock, Ithaca, NY, xxii + 557 pp.
  • Smith,H.M. 1972. The sonoran subspecies of the lizard Ctenosaura hemilopha. Great Basin Naturalist 32 (2): 104-111 - get paper here
  • Stebbins,R.C. 1985. A Field Guide to Western Reptiles and Amphibians, 2nd ed. Houghton Mifflin, Boston
  • Taylor, Edward Harrison 1938. Notes on the herpetological fauna of the Mexican state of Sonora. Univ. Kansas Sci. Bull. 24 (19): 475-503 [1936] - get paper here
  • Van Denburgh,J. 1895. A review of the herpetology of Lower California. Part I - Reptiles. Proc. Cal. Acad. Sci. (2) 5: 77-163 - get paper here
  • Weathers, W.W. & K.R. Morgareidge 1971. Cutaneous Vascular Responses to Temperature Change in the Spiny-Tailed Iguana, Ctenosaura hemilopha Copeia 1971 (3): 548-551. - get paper here
 
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