Phrynosoma braconnieri, the short-tailed horned lizard, occurs only in pine-oak woodland and xeric thorn-scrub of Puebla and Oaxaca, Mexico. It may also inhabit Veracruz. P. braconnieri can be distinguished from other horned lizard species by the following: one row of lateral abdominal fringe scales; two moderately developed occipital spines, short, heavy and separated; temporal horns very reduced; very short tail; all ventral scales keeled; and nostrils in the line of the canthus rostralis. |
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About the Species
This specimen was collected by Dr. Wendy L. Hodges in 1999 approximately 2 kilometers from the municipality of Tepanco de Lopez in the state of Puebla, Mexico. It resides in Dr. Hodges' private collection. It was made available to the University of Texas High-Resolution X-ray CT Facility for scanning by Dr. Hodges of the Department of Biology, University of California, Riverside. Funding for scanning was provided by a National Science Foundation grant (DBI-0204459) to Dr. Hodges. Funding for image processing was provided by a National Science Foundation Digital Libraries Initiative grant to Dr. Timothy Rowe of the Department of Geological Sciences, The University of Texas at Austin.
About this Specimen
The specimen was scanned by Matthew Colbert on 27 May 2003 along the coronal axis for a total of 702 slices, each slice 0.0313 mm thick with an interslice spacing of 0.0313 mm.
About the Scan
Literature
Frost, D. R., and R. Etheridge. 1989. A phylogenetic analysis and taxonomy of iguanian lizards (Reptilia: Squamata). University of Kansas Museum of Natural History Miscellaneous Publication 81.
Pianka, E. R., and W. S. Parker. 1975. Ecology of horned lizards: A review with special reference to Phrynosoma platyrhinos Copeia 1975:141-162.
Presch, W. 1969. Evolutionary osteology and relationships of the horned lizard genus Phrynosoma (Family Iguanidae) Copeia 1969:250-275.
Reeve, W. L. 1952. Taxonomy and distribution of the horned lizard genus Phrynosoma. University of Kansas Science Bulletin 34:817-960.
Smith, H. M. 1946. Handbook of Lizards: Lizards of the United States and of Canada. Comstock Publishing Co., Ithaca, New York.
Links
More on horned lizards from Eric Pianka and Wendy Hodges
The Horned Lizard Conservation Society
Literature & Links
None available.
Additional Imagery
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