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Reptilia    Squamata (part-other lizards)    Teiidae  
Townsend’s Whiptail
Aspidoscelis townsendae Cole, Baumann, Taylor, Bobon, Ho, Neaves, and Baumann, 2023
as-pid-OSS-uh-lis — TOWN-sen-day
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SSAR 9th Edition Comments:
 This newly named species was generated in the laboratory by hybridization between females of A. exsanguis and males of A. gularis and is not known to occur in the wild (Cole et al., 2023, Bulletin of the Museum of Comparative Zoology 163: 247–279). (de Queiroz, Kevin and Lauren M. Chan. 2025. Squamata (excluding snakes) – Lizards. Pages 23-37 in Kirsten E. Nicholson (Editor), Scientific and Standard English Names of Amphibians and Reptiles of North America North of Mexico, with Comments Regarding Confidence in Our Understanding, 9th Edition. Society for the Study of Amphibians and Reptiles, Lawrence, Kansas. 87 pp.)

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Open icons indicate questionable records, including those with coordinate uncertainty greater than 10,000 m (approximately 6 miles). Click a marker to view metadata.
Occurrences:; 0 Total; 0 Museum; 0 Other

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Province/State Distribution:
United States: Missouri

Taxonomic Etymology:
A whiptail lizard endemic to parts of Mexico, named in honor of a naturalist.
Aspidoscelis — Greek for “shield leg.”
townsendae — Eponym honoring Carol R. Townsend of the American Museum of Natural History, who was instrumental in developing procedures for raising whiptails in captivity.

First instance(s) of published English names:
No historic English names have been assigned to this taxon yet.


Selected References:
1970 Gorman, George C. Chromosomes and the systematics of the family Teiidae (Sauria, Reptilia). Copeia 1970(2):230-245
2002 Reeder, Tod W., Charles J. Cole, and Herbert C. Dessauer. Phylogenetic relationships of Whiptail lizards of the genus Cnemidophorus (Squamata: Teiidae): A test of monophyly, reevaluation of karyotypic evolution, and review of hybrid origins. American Museum Novitates (3365):1-61
2023 Cole, Charles J., Diana P. Baumann, Harry L. Taylor, Nadine Bobon, David V. Ho, William B. Neaves, and Peter Baumann. Reticulate phylogeny: A new tetraploid parthenogenetic whiptail lizard derived from hybridization among four bisexual ancestral species of Aspidoscelis (Reptilia: Squamata: Teiidae). Bulletin of the Museum of Comparative Zoology 163(7):247-279

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