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Reptilia    Squamata (part)    Crotalidae  

Western Diamond-backed Rattlesnake
Crotalus atrox Baird and Girard, 1853
krowe-TUH-luhs — AH-trox

SSAR 9th Edition Comments:
 Schield et al. (2015, Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution 83: 213–223) and Myers et al. (2017, Journal of Biogeography 44: 461–474; 2019, Molecular Ecology 28: 4535–4548) found two lineages distributed in the Chihuahuan and Sonoran Deserts hybridizing at the Cochise Filter Barrier.

Range maps are based on curated specimens and provided gratis by CNAH.
(Created by Travis W. Taggart; Version: 2023.05.10.09.31.43)
Download GeoJSON polygon range file: - 0.82 MB

Province/State Distribution:
USA: Arizona Arkansas California Kansas Nevada New Mexico Oklahoma Texas

First instance(s) of published English names:
Atrox (Craspedocephalus atrox: Royal College of Surgeons of England. 1859. Descriptive catalogue of the specimens of natural history in spirit contained in the Museum of the Royal college of surgeons of England. Vertebrata: Pisces, Reptilia, Aves, Mammalia. Taylor and Francis, London, England. pp.); Striped Rattle-snake (Uropsophus durissus: Royal College of Surgeons of England. 1859. Descriptive catalogue of the specimens of natural history in spirit contained in the Museum of the Royal college of surgeons of England. Vertebrata: Pisces, Reptilia, Aves, Mammalia. Taylor and Francis, London, England. pp.); Fierce Rattle Snake (Crotalus atrox: Cooper, James G. 1869. The fauna of California and its geographical distribution. Proceedings of the California Academy of Sciences 4():61-81); Rattlesnake (Crotalus atrox: Cooper, James G. 1869. The naturalist in California. The American Naturalist 3(9):470-481); Arizona Diamond Rattlesnake (Crotalus adamanteus atrox: Yarrow, Henry C. 1882. Check list of North American Reptilia and Batrachia with catalogue of specimens in U. S. National Museum. Bulletin of the United States National Museum (24):1-249); Texas Rattlesnake (Crotalus atrox: Stejneger, Leonhard H. 1895. The poisonous snakes of North America. Annual Report of the United States National Museum 1893(2):337-487); Western Diamond Rattlesnake (Crotalus atrox atrox: Brown, Arthur, E. 1902. Report of the Board of Directors. Pages 5-22 in Thirtieth Annual Report of the Board of Directors of the Zoological Society of Philadelphia. Allen, Lane, and Scott, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. pp.); Texas Diamond Rattlesnake (Crotalus atrox: Strecker, John K., Jr. 1922. An annotated catalogue of the amphibians and reptiles of Bexar County, Texas. Bulletin Scientific Society of San Antonio (4):1-31); Desert Diamond Rattlesnake (Crotalus atrox: Van Denburgh, John. 1922. The Reptiles of Western North America: An Account of the Species Known to Inhabit California and Oregon, Washinton, Idaho, Utah, Nevada, Arizona, British Columbia, Sonora, and Lower California. Volume I. Lizards. California Academy of Sciences, San Francisco. 556pp.); Tortuga Island Diamond Rattlesnake (Crotalus tortugensis: Van Denburgh, John. 1922. The Reptiles of Western North America: An Account of the Species Known to Inhabit California and Oregon, Washinton, Idaho, Utah, Nevada, Arizona, British Columbia, Sonora, and Lower California. Volume I. Lizards. California Academy of Sciences, San Francisco. 556pp.); Western Diamond Rattlesnake (Crotalus atrox: Schmidt, Karl Peterson and D. D. Davis. 1941. Field Book of Snakes of the United States and Canada. C.P. Putnam and Sons, New York. 365pp.); Western Diamond Back Rattlesnake (Crotalus atrox: Wright, Albert Hazen. 1950. Common names of the snakes of the United States. Herpetologica 6(6):141-186); Western Diamond Rattler (Crotalus atrox: Wright, Albert Hazen. 1950. Common names of the snakes of the United States. Herpetologica 6(6):141-186); Texas Diamond-back (Crotalus atrox: Wright, Albert Hazen. 1950. Common names of the snakes of the United States. Herpetologica 6(6):141-186); Texas Diamond-back Snake (Crotalus atrox: Wright, Albert Hazen. 1950. Common names of the snakes of the United States. Herpetologica 6(6):141-186); Diamond Back Rattlesnake (Crotalus atrox: Wright, Albert Hazen. 1950. Common names of the snakes of the United States. Herpetologica 6(6):141-186); Arizona Diamond Rattlesnake (Crotalus atrox: Wright, Albert Hazen. 1950. Common names of the snakes of the United States. Herpetologica 6(6):141-186); Diamond Rattlesnake (Crotalus atrox: Wright, Albert Hazen. 1950. Common names of the snakes of the United States. Herpetologica 6(6):141-186); Coon-tail Rattler (Crotalus atrox: Wright, Albert Hazen. 1950. Common names of the snakes of the United States. Herpetologica 6(6):141-186); Desert Diamond Rattlesnake (Crotalus atrox: Wright, Albert Hazen. 1950. Common names of the snakes of the United States. Herpetologica 6(6):141-186); Spitting Rattlesnake (Crotalus atrox: Wright, Albert Hazen. 1950. Common names of the snakes of the United States. Herpetologica 6(6):141-186); Diamond-back Snake (Crotalus atrox: Wright, Albert Hazen. 1950. Common names of the snakes of the United States. Herpetologica 6(6):141-186); Texas Diamond Rattlesnake (Crotalus atrox: Wright, Albert Hazen. 1950. Common names of the snakes of the United States. Herpetologica 6(6):141-186); Western Diamond Rattlesnake (Crotalus atrox: Wright, Albert Hazen. 1950. Common names of the snakes of the United States. Herpetologica 6(6):141-186); Western Diamond-backed Rattlesnake (Crotalus atrox: Wright, Albert Hazen. 1950. Common names of the snakes of the United States. Herpetologica 6(6):141-186); Western Diamond Rattlesnake (Crotalus atrox: 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:
1853 Baird, Spencer F. and Charles Girard. Catalogue of North American Reptiles in the Museum of the Smithsonian Institution. Part 1. Serpents. Smithsonian Miscellaneous Collections 2(5):xvi + 172
1930 Klauber, Laurence M. Differential characteristics of southwestern rattlesnakes allied to Crotalus atrox. Bulletin of the Zoological Society of San Diego 6:1-72
1940 Gloyd, Howard K. The rattlesnakes, genera Sistrurus and Crotalus. Chicago Academy of Sciences Special Publication 4(1):1-266
1956 Klauber, Laurence M. Rattlesnakes. Their habits, life histories, and influence on mankind. 2 Volumes. University of California Press, Berkeley, California. pp.
1972 Klauber, Laurence M. Rattlesnakes. Their Habits, Life Histories, and Influence on Mankind. 2 Vols. 2nd ed. University of California Press, Berkeley and Los Angeles. pp.
1972 Baker, Robert J., George A. Mengden, and James J. Bull. Karyotypic studies of thirty-eight species of North American snakes . Copeia 1972(2):257-265
1978 Harris, Herbert S. and Robert S. Simmons. A preliminary account of the rattlesnakes with descriptions of four new subspecies. Bulletin of the Maryland Herpetological Society 14:105-211
1986 Minton, Sherman A., Jr. and S. A. Weinstein. Geographic and ontogenetic variation in venom of the Western Diamondback Rattlesnake (Crotalus atrox). Toxicon 24(1):71-80
1991 Thireau, Michel. Types and historically important specimens of rattlesnakes in the Museum National D'Histoire Naturelle (Paris). Smithsonian Herpetological Information Service (87):1-10
1995 Riedle, J. Daren. A report on the occurrence of the Western Diamondback Rattlesnake Crotalus atrox in Kansas Kansas Department of Wildlife and Parks, Pratt. 7pp.
1996 Riedle, J. Daren. Some Occurrences of the Western Diamondback Rattlesnake (Crotalus atrox) in Kansas. Kansas Herpetological Society Newsletter (105):18-19
1998 Beaupre, Steven J., David Duvall, and Jack O'Leile. Ontogenetic variation in growth and sexual size dimorphism in a central Arizona population of the Western Diamondback Rattlesnake (Crotalus atrox). Copeia 1998(1):40-47
2001 Tsai, Inn-Ho, Y-Hsuan Chen, Ying-Ming Wang, Ming-Chang Tu and Anthony T. Tu. Purification, sequencing, and phylogenetic analyses of novel lys-49 phospholipases A2 from the venoms of rattlesnakes and other pit vipers. Archives of Biochemistry and Biophysics 394(2):236-244
2002 Fitch, Henry S. A comparison of growth and rattle string in three species of rattlesnakes. Scientific Papers of the Natural History Museum, University of Kansas (24):1-6
2007 Castoe, Todd A., Carol L. Spencer, and Christopher L. Parkinson. Phylogeographic structure and historical demography of the western diamondback rattlesnake (Crotalus atrox): A perspective on North American desert biogeography. Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution 42:193-212
2008 Spencer, Carol L. Geographic variation in Western Diamond-backed Rattlesnake (Crotalus atrox) morphology. Pages in The Biology of Rattlesnakes. Loma Linda University Press, Loma Linda, California. pp.
2008 Taylor, Emily N. and Dale F. DeNardo Proximate determinants of sexual size dimorphism in the Western Diamond-backed Rattlesnake (Crotalus atrox). Pages in The Biology of Rattlesnakes. Loma Linda University Press, Loma Linda, California. pp.
2015 Schield, Drew R., Daren C. Card, Richard H. Adams, Tereza Jezkova, Jacobo Reyes-Velasco, F. Nicole Proctor, Carol L. Spencer, Hans-Werner Herrmann, Stephen P. Mackessy, Todd A.Castoe Incipient speciation with biased gene flow between two lineages of the Western Diamondback Rattlesnake (Crotalus atrox). Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution 83(2015):213-223
2016 Myers, Edward A., Michael J. Hickerson, and Frank T. Burbrink. Asynchronous diversification of snakes in the North American warm deserts. Journal of Biogeography 44(2):1-14
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
2017 Myers, Edward A., Michael J. Hickerson, Frank T. Burbrink. Asynchronous diversification of snakes in the North American warm deserts. Journal of Biogeography 44(2):461-474
2019 Myers, Edward A., Alexander T. Xue, Marcelo Gehara, Christian Cox, Alison R. Davis Rabosky, Julio Lemos‐Espinal, Juan E. Martínez‐Gómez, and Frank T. Burbrink. Environmental heterogeneity and not vicariant biogeographic barriers generate community‐wide population structure in desert‐adapted snakes. Molecular Ecology 28(20):4535-4548
2024 Burbrink, Frank T., Edward A. Myers, R. Alexander Pyron. Understanding species limits through the formation of phylogeographic lineages. Ecology and Evolution 14(10):1-18
2024 Myers, Edward A., Rhett M. Rautsaw, Miguel Borja, Jason Jones, Christoph I. Grünwald, Matthew L. Holding, Felipe Grazziotin, and Christopher L. Parkinson. Phylogenomic discordance is driven by wide-spread introgression and incomplete lineage sorting during rapid species diversification within rattlesnakes (Viperidae: Crotalus and Sistrurus) Systematic Biology syae018:

THE CENTER FOR NORTH AMERICAN HERPETOLOGY — Accessed: Saturday 07 June 2025 20:55 CT