THE CENTER FOR NORTH AMERICAN HERPETOLOGY
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Reptilia
Squamata (part-snakes)
Colubridae
Tricolor Shovel-nosed Snake
Sonora annulata
(Baird, 1859)
soh-NOHR-ah — an-yoo-LAY-tuh
SSAR 9th Edition Comments:
See comments under
Sonora
.
(Boundy, Jeff, Frank T. Burbrink, and Sara Ruane. 2025.
Squamata (excluding lizards) – Snakes
. Pages 38-54 in Kirsten E. Nicholson (Editor), Scientific and Standard English Names of Amphibians and Reptiles of North America North of Mexico, with Comments Regarding Confidence in Our Understanding, 9th Edition. Society for the Study of Amphibians and Reptiles, Lawrence, Kansas. 87 pp.)
(
,
Museum Voucher) (
,
Observation) (
,
Literature Record), (
,
Citizen Science), (
Fossil)
Open icons indicate questionable records, including those with coordinate uncertainty greater than 10,000 m (approximately 6 miles). Click a marker to view metadata.
Occurrences:
;
490
Total;
36
Museum;
454
Other
The locality database contains 8,094,832 records, and geographic and taxonomic errors exist. Logged-in, registered users may report a potential issue directly from the marker popup.
Shaded range maps are based on curated specimens and provided gratis by CNAH.
(Version: 2024.02.01.13.49.55)
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Museum
Literature
Fossil
Personal Observation
Citizen Science
Province/State Distribution:
United States:
Arizona
California
Taxonomic Etymology:
Named for its ringed color pattern.
Sonora
— Named after the Sonoran Desert or Sonora state in Mexico, referencing the region where many species in the genus are found.
annulata
— From Latin annulatus, meaning “ringed.” Refers to the prominent dark bands encircling the body in many individuals.
First instance(s) of published English names:
Colorado Desert Shovel-nosed Snake
(
Chionactis occipitalis annulata
: 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:
1859 "1858"
Baird, Spencer F.
Reptiles of the Boundary, in: Volume 2, pt. 2.
United States and Mexican Boundary Survey, U.S. 34th Congress, 1st Session, Executive Document 108. 1-35pp.
2012
Cox, Christian L.
Phylogenetic systematics, populations genetics, and the evolution of color pattern polymorphism and coral snake mimicry in the snake genus
Sonora
.
Dissertation. University of Texas at Arlington, Arlington, Texas. 159pp.
2013
Cox, Christian L. and Alison R. Davis Rabosky.
Spatial and temporal drivers of phenotypic diversity in polymorphic snakes.
The American Naturalist 182(2):E40-E57
2014
Cox, Christian L. and Paul T. Chippindale.
Patterns of genetic diversity in the polymorphic ground snake (
Sonora semiannulata
).
Genetica 142:361-370
2016
Rabosky, Davis, Alison R., Christian L. Cox, Daniel L. Rabosky, Pascal O. Title, Iris A. Holmes, Anat Feldman, and Jimmy A. McGuire.
Coral snakes predict the evolution of mimicry across New World snakes.
Nature Communications 7(11484):1-9
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
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