Xantusia gracilis GRISMER & GALVAN, 1986

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Higher Taxa	Xantusiidae (Xantusiinae), Scincoidea, Sauria, Squamata (lizards)
Subspecies
Common Names	E: Sandstone Night Lizard
Synonym	Xantusia henshawi gracilis GRISMER & GALVAN 1986 Xantusia henshawi gracilis — CROTHER 2000: 55 Xantusia gracilis — VICARIO et al. 2003 Xantusia ‘gracilis’ — SINCLAIR et al. 2004 Xantusia gracilis — COLLINS & TAGGART 2009 Xantusia gracilis — THOMSON et al. 2016: 246 Xantusia gracilis — HANSEN & SHEDD 2025
Distribution	USA (S California) Type locality: Truckhaven Rocks, Anza-Borrego Desert State Park, San Diego County, California.
Reproduction	ovoviviparous
Types	Holotype: SDNHM = SDSNH 64830. paratypes SDNHM = SDSNH
Diagnosis	Unfortunately 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 878 characters), are available for collaborators and contributors. Please contact us for details.
Comment	Habitat/Ecomorph: rock-crevice Abundance: only known from the type locality (Meiri et al. 2017). Distribution: map for California in Thomson et al. 2016: 226.
Etymology	Named after Latin gracilis, slender, thin, slim. [“...The adjectival name gracilis, meaning slender, comes from the Latin root gracil, and pertains to this population's slender habitus...”].
References	Bezy, Robert L. and Oscar Flores Villela. 1999. A new species of Xantusia (Squamata: Xantusiidae) from Zacatecas, Mexico. Herpetologica 55 (2): 174-184. - get paper here Bezy,R.L. & SItes, J.W. 1987. A preliminary study of allozyme evolution in the lizard family Xantusiidae. Herpetologica 43: 281-289 - get paper here Collins, J.T. and T. W. Taggart 2009. Standard Common and Current Scientific Names for North American Amphibians, Turtles, Reptiles, and Crocodilians, Sixth Edition. Center for North American Herpetology, 48 pp. Crother, B. I. (ed.) 2012. Standard Common and Current Scientific Names for North American Amphibians, Turtles, Reptiles, and Crocodilians, Seventh Edition. Herpetological Circular 39: 1-92 GRISMER, L. LEE. 2021. Comparative ecomorphology of the sandstone night lizard (Xantusia gracilis) and the granite night lizard (Xantusia henshawi). Vertebrate Zoology 71: 425–437. - get paper here Grismer, L. Lee; Galvan, Mark A. 1986. A new night lizard (Xantusia henshawi) from a sandstone habitat in San Diego County, California. Transactions of the San Diego Society of Natural History 21 (10): 155-165 - get paper here Hansen, Robert and Jackson D. Shedd 2025. California Amphibians and Reptiles. Princeton University Press, 528 pp., ISBN<br />9780691249087 (ebook) - get paper here Henry, Taylor S. and Gary S. Henry. 2015. Xantusia gracilis (sandstone night lizard) diet and foraging behavior. Herpetological Review 46 (1): 98 - 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 Lee, J. C. 1976. Xantusia henshawi Stejneger granite night lizard. Catalogue of American Amphibians and Reptiles (189): 1-2 - get paper here Lee, Julian C. 1975. The Autecology of Xantusia Henshawi henshawi (Sauria: Xantusiidae). Transactions of the San Diego Society of Natural History 17 (19): 259-278 - get paper here Lovich, R.E. & Grismer, L.L. 2001. Xantusia gracilis Grismer and Galvan - Sandstone Night Lizard. Catalogue of American Amphibians and Reptiles ( 772: 1-2 - get paper here Lovich, Robert 2001. Phylogeography of the night lizard, Xantusia henshawi, in southern California: evolution across fault zones. Herpetologica 57 (4):470-487 - get paper here Meiri, Shai; Aaron M. Bauer, Allen Allison, Fernando Castro-Herrera, Laurent Chirio, Guarino Colli, Indraneil Das, Tiffany M. Doan, Frank Glaw, Lee L. Grismer, Marinus Hoogmoed, Fred Kraus, Matthew LeBreton, Danny Meirte, Zoltán T. Nagy, Cristiano d 2017. Extinct, obscure or imaginary: the lizard species with the smallest ranges. Diversity and Distributions 24 (2): 262-273 - get paper here Noonan, Brice P.; Jennifer B. Pramuk, Robert L. Bezy, Elizabeth A. Sinclair, Kevin de Queiroz, Jack W. Sites Jr. 2013. Phylogenetic relationships within the lizard clade Xantusiidae: Using trees and divergence times to address evolutionary questions at multiple levels. Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution, Volume 69, Issue 1, October 2013, Pages 109–122 - get paper here Pilliod, D., Jeffries, M., Arkle, R. and Olson, D. 2024. Climate Futures for Lizards and Snakes in Western North America May Result in New Species Management Issues. Ecol Evol, 14: e70379 - get paper here Sinclair, Elizabeth A.; Robert L. Bezy; Kathryn Bolles; Jose L. Camarillo R.; Keith A. Crandall and Jack W. Sites, Jr. 2004. Testing Species Boundaries in an Ancient Species Complex with Deep Phylogeographic History: Genus Xantusia (Squamata: Xantusiidae). American Naturalist 164 (3): 396-414 - get paper here Stebbins,R.C. 1985. A Field Guide to Western Reptiles and Amphibians, 2nd ed. Houghton Mifflin, Boston Stejneger, L. 1893. Diagnosis of a new Californian lizard. Proc. US Natl. Mus. 16: 467 - get paper here Thomson, Robert C.; Amber N. Wright & H. Bradley Shaffer 2016. California Amphibian and Reptile Species of Special Concern. University of California Press - get paper here Vicario, Saverio; Adalgisa Caccone and Jacques Gauthier 2003. Xantusiid "night" lizards: a puzzling phylogenetic problem revisited using likelihood-based Bayesian methods on mtDNA sequences. Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution 26 (2): 243-261 - get paper here
External links	IUCN Red List National Center for Biotechnology Information Google images

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