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Ctenosaura conspicuosa DICKERSON, 1919

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Higher TaxaIguanidae, Iguania, Sauria, Squamata (lizards)
Subspecies 
Common NamesE: San Esteban Spinytail Iguana
S: Garrobo de Isla San Esteban 
SynonymCtenosaura conspicuosa DICKERSON 1919
Ctenosaura hemilopha conspicuosa — LOWE & NORRIS 1955
Ctenosaura hemilopha conspicuosa — LINER 1994
Ctenosaura conspicuosa — GRISMER 1999
Ctenosaura conspicuosa — JONES & LOVICH 2009
Ctenosaura conspicuosa — LOVICH et al. 2009
Ctenosaura conspicuosa — HEIMES 2022 
DistributionMexico (endemic to Isla San Esteban, Sonora)

Type locality: "San Esteban Island, [Sonora,] Gulf of California, Mexico".  
Reproductionoviparous (manual imputation, fide Zimin et al. 2022) 
TypesHolotype: USNM 64440, Listed as AMNH 5027 in original description. 
DiagnosisDiagnosis: Closely related as shown by scutellation to Cterwsaura hemilopha
Cope, of the Cape Region. Size extremely large, total length exceeding 650 mm. in the large males, for which the following characters are diagnostic: series of high scales of the crest ending more or less abruptly at a point opposite the middle of the adpressed upper arm, the small keeled scales which continue along the vertebral line traceable to various points beyond the middle of the body and anterior to the rump; scales of dorsal tibia with strong sharp keels and spines, of dorsal foot with strong spines; tail spinous dorsally and laterally throughout its length; enlarged scales in the posterior rows of the caudal whorls (first half of tail) only moderate in size, length of largest equal to 9 dorsal scales, often exceeded by tallest spines of dorsal crest; width of the widest whorl (2 rows dorsally) very much less than distance from nostril to anterior orbit; base of 5th to end of 4th toe equal to distance from anterior border of ear to end of muzzle. Color light yellowish; black or intensely dai,:kbrown on gular region and fold, breast and thoracic region to the line of the wrists (when arms adpressed), also axilla and lateral area as high as the dorsolateral line; a short lenticular black spot crosses the back between the points of insertion of the arms (its middle corresponding with line of axillas), connected at its narrowed ends with somewhat irregular, longidutinal lines of black which, with the lenticular spot, mark out a rectangle containing a central black spot, while a smaller black spot anteriorly on the spines of -the crest indicates the middle of the anterior boundary of the rectangle; also a straight band of black crosses the back on a line with the elbows, curving abruptly at the sides to join the black below the dorsolateral line (Dickerson 1919: 461).


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Comment 
EtymologyNamed after Latin conspicuus, in view, visible, apparent, obvious + Latin -osa, suffix denoting abundance. [“...Because of its yellowish white color, this giant lizard is very conspicuous on the rocks of San Esteban...”]. 
References
  • 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
  • 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
  • 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
  • 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
  • Lemos-Espinal JA, Smith GR, Rorabaugh JC 2019. A conservation checklist of the amphibians and reptiles of Sonora, Mexico, with updated species lists. ZooKeys 829: 131-160 - 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
  • Zimin, A., Zimin, S. V., Shine, R., Avila, L., Bauer, A., Böhm, M., Brown, R., Barki, G., de Oliveira Caetano, G. H., Castro Herrera, F., Chapple, D. G., Chirio, L., Colli, G. R., Doan, T. M., Glaw, F., Grismer, L. L., Itescu, Y., Kraus, F., LeBreton 2022. A global analysis of viviparity in squamates highlights its prevalence in cold climates. Global Ecology and Biogeography, 00, 1–16 - get paper here
 
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