Flat-tail horned lizard

Species of lizard

The flat tail horned lizard (Phrynosoma mcallii) is a species of lizard in the family Phrynosomatidae. A species of reptile, it is endemic to the Sonoran desert of the southwestern United States and northwestern Mexico. who collected the first specimen in California in the 19th century. The species occupies a small range in the Sonoran Desert of southeastern California, southwestern Arizona, and extreme northern Mexico in the Baja California and Sonora states.

The flat tail horned lizard has evolved elaborate camouflage measures to eliminate shadow. Their bodies are flattened, with the sides thinning to an edge; the animals habitually press their bodies to the ground; and their sides are fringed with white scales which effectively hide and disrupt any remaining areas of shadow there may be under the edge of the body. In 1982, the US Fish and Wildlife Service declared P. mcallii as a Candidate 2 Category for the list of threatened and endangered species due to concerns over potential threats to their habitat which could further diminish the population. P. mcallii has also been given special status in both California and Arizona, which prevents their collection. "Between 1978 and 1980 the Bureau of Land Management supported investigations of the status of P. mcallii in California. The purpose of this work was to determine the local distribution and relative abundance of P. mcallii, to correlate these parameters with various habitat attributes, and to gather information on the structure of the populations and mobility and food habits of individual lizards."