THE CENTER FOR NORTH AMERICAN HERPETOLOGY


Reptilia    Squamata (part)    Phrynosomatidae  

Common Side-blotched Lizard
Uta stansburiana Baird and Girard, 1852
EW-tuh — stans-bury-AN-uh

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: 2024.07.18.13.33.06)
Download GeoJSON polygon range file: - 0.37 MB

First instance(s) of published English names:
Elegant Uta (Uta elegans: 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); Stansbury's Uta (Uta stansburiana: 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); Brown Shouldered Lizard (Uta stansburiana: Van Denburgh, John. 1897. The reptiles of the Pacific Coast and Great Basin: An account of the species known to inhabit California, and Oregon, Washington, Idaho, and Nevada. Occasional Papers of the California Academy of Sciences 5():9-236); Stansbury's Uta Lizard (Uta stansburiana: 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.); Southern Brown-shouldered Lizard (Uta (Uta) stansburiana elegans: 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.); California Brown-shouldered Lizard (Uta (Uta) stansburiana hesperis: 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.); Northern Brown-shouldered Lizard (Uta (Uta) stansburiana stansburiana: 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.); Long-tailed Uta (Uta graciosa: Schmidt, Karl P. 1953. A Check List of North American Amphibians and Reptiles. 6th Edition. University of Chicago Press, Chicago, Illinois. 280pp.); Long-tailed Uta (Uta graciosa: Schmidt, Karl P. 1953. A Check List of North American Amphibians and Reptiles. 6th Edition. University of Chicago Press, Chicago, Illinois. 280pp.); California Collared Uta (Uta mearnsi: Schmidt, Karl P. 1953. A Check List of North American Amphibians and Reptiles. 6th Edition. University of Chicago Press, Chicago, Illinois. 280pp.); Small-scaled Uta (Uta microscutata: Schmidt, Karl P. 1953. A Check List of North American Amphibians and Reptiles. 6th Edition. University of Chicago Press, Chicago, Illinois. 280pp.); Side-blotched Uta (Uta stansburiana: Schmidt, Karl P. 1953. A Check List of North American Amphibians and Reptiles. 6th Edition. University of Chicago Press, Chicago, Illinois. 280pp.); California Side-blotched Uta (Uta stansburiana hesperis: Schmidt, Karl P. 1953. A Check List of North American Amphibians and Reptiles. 6th Edition. University of Chicago Press, Chicago, Illinois. 280pp.); Northern Side-blotched Uta (Uta stansburiana stansburiana: Schmidt, Karl P. 1953. A Check List of North American Amphibians and Reptiles. 6th Edition. University of Chicago Press, Chicago, Illinois. 280pp.); Desert Side-blotched Lizard (Uta stansburiana stejnegeri: 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:
1852 Baird, Spencer F. and Charles Girard. Reptiles. Pages 336-365 in Howard Stansbury's, An expedition to the valley of the Great Salt Lake of Utah: Including a description of its geography, natural history, and minerals, and an analysis of its waters: With an authentic account of the Mormon Settlement: Also, a reconnoissance [sic] of a new route through the Rocky Mountains. Sampson Low, Son, and Company., Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. 487pp. US House of Representatives, Washington. pp.
1890 Stejneger, Leonhard H. Part V. - Annotated list of reptiles and batrachians collected by Dr. C. Hart Merriam and Vernon Bailey on the San Francisco Mountain Plateau and Desert of the Little Colorado, Arizona, with descriptions of new species. North American Fauna 3(3):103-118
1890 Merriam, C. Hart. Part I. - General results of a biological survey of the San Francisco Mountain Region in Arizona, with special reference to the distribution of species. North American Fauna 3(3):5-34
1970 Pack, Lloyd E., Jr. and Wilmer W. Tanner. A taxonomic comparison of Uta stansburiana of the Great Basin and the upper Colorado River basin in Utah, with a description of a new subspecies. Great Basin Naturalist 30(2):71-90
1971 Ferguson, Gary W. Variation and evolution of the push-up displays of the side-blotched lizard genus Uta (Iguanidae). Systematic Zoology 20(1):79-101
1991 Collins, Joseph T. Viewpoint: A new taxonomic arrangement for some North American amphibins and reptiles Herpetological Review 22(2):42-43
1993 Guenther, Marybeth M., Gary W. Ferguson, Howard L. Snell, and Heidi Snell. The variation and genetic basis of dorsal color pattern in the desert side-blotched lizard, Uta stansburiana stejnegeri. Journal of Herpetology 27(2):199-205
1997 Upton, D. E. and Robert W. Murphy. Phylogeny of the Sideblotched Lizards (Phrynosomatidae: Uta) based on mtDNA sequences: Support for a midpeninsular seaway in Baja California. Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution 8:104–113
2013 Lambert, Shea M. and John J. Wiens. Evolution of viviparity: A phylogenetic test of the cold-climate hypothesis in Phrynosomatid lizards. Evolution 67(9):2614–2630
2014 Crother, Brian I. The bold taxonomic hypotheses of Collins (1991): 23 years later. Herpetological Review 45(2):268-272
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: Tuesday 17 June 2025 08:19 CT