THE CENTER FOR NORTH AMERICAN HERPETOLOGY

Reptilia    Testudines    Testudinidae  

Sonoran Desert Tortoise
Gopherus morafkai Murphy, Berry, Edwards, Leviton, Lathrop, and Riedle, 2011
GOH-fer-us — mor-AHF-kye

SSAR 9th Edition Comments:
 There are no current SSAR comments for this taxon.

Range maps are based on curated specimens and provided gratis by CNAH.
(Created by Travis W. Taggart; Version: 2023.04.08.21.20.38)
Download GeoJSON polygon range file: - 0.57 MB

Province/State Distribution:
United States: Arizona New Mexico

Taxonomic Etymology:
Of the Sonoran Desert, split from Gopherus agassizii.
Gopherus — From “gopher,” due to the species' burrowing habits.
morafkai — Patronym honoring David J. Morafka (1940–2004), a herpetologist known for his work on tortoises.

First instance(s) of published English names:
Western Gopher Turtle (Gopherus agassizi: Schmidt, Karl P. 1953. A Check List of North American Amphibians and Reptiles. 6th Edition. University of Chicago Press, Chicago, Illinois. 280pp.); Desert Tortoise (Gopherus agassizi: Schmidt, Karl P. 1953. A Check List of North American Amphibians and Reptiles. 6th Edition. University of Chicago Press, Chicago, Illinois. 280pp.);

Taxon Links:

  
Catalog of American Amphibians and Reptiles
  
The Reptile Database
  
NatureServe
  
iNaturalist
  
GenBank
  
USGS - Nonindigenous Aquatic Species Database

Selected References:
1974 Bramble, Dennis M. Occurrence and significance of the Os transiliens in gopher tortoises. Copeia 1974:102-109
1976 Auffenberg, Walter. The genus Gopherus (Testudinidae): Pt. I. Osteology and relationships of extant species. Bulletin of the Florida State Museum, Biological Sciences. 20(2):47-110
1978 Auffenberg, Walter and Franz, Richard. Gopherus. Catalogue of American Amphibians and Reptiles (211):1-2
1982 Bramble, Dennis M. Scaptochelys: Generic revision and evolution of gopher tortoises. Copeia 1982(4):852-867
2011 Murphy, Robert W., Kristin H. Berry, Taylor Edwards, Alen E. Leviton, Amy Lathrop, and J. Daren Riedle. The dazed and confused identity of Agassiz's land tortoise, Gopherus agassizii (Testudines, Testudinidae) with the description of a new species, and its consequences for conservation. ZooKeys (113):39-71
2017 Bezy, Robert L., Philip C. Rosen, Thomas R. Van Devender, and Erik F. Enderson. Southern distributional limits of the Sonoran Desert herpetofauna along the mainland coast of northwestern Mexico Mesoamerican Herpetology 4(1):138-167

THE CENTER FOR NORTH AMERICAN HERPETOLOGY — Accessed: Wednesday 04 March 2026 00:26 CT