Southern Sagebrush Lizard Sceloporus vandenburgianus  Cope, 1896

Taxonomic Comments:

Collins, Joseph T. (1991 Viewpoint: A new taxonomic arrangement for some North American amphibians and reptiles. Herpetological Review. 22(2): pp. 42-43), using the Evolutionary Species Concept, considered this previously defined and diagnosed allopatric taxon a distinct species, a more conservative arrangement than recognizing it as a race of Sceloporus graciosus with which it does not intergrade nor exchange genes. Wiens & Reeder (1997 Herpetological Monographs 11: 1-101) recognized this taxon as a distinct species, as proposed by Collins (1991 Herpetological Review 22: 42-43). Powell, Collins and Hooper (1998 A Key to the Amphibians and Reptiles of the Continental United States and Canada. University Press of Kansas, Lawrence. vi + 131 pp.) recognized this taxon as a species distinct from S. graciosus.