Gambelia Sila - Taxonomy

Taxonomy

Gambelia sila was first discovered in 1890 and has since undergone several reclassifications. When it was first discovered by Stejneger in 1890 it was classified as Crotaphytus silus. Stejneger discovered Gambelia sila in Fresno, California. Ten years later in 1900 Cope believed the lizard to be a subspecies of the long-nosed leopard lizard, C. wislizenii, and classified it as C. w. silus. Based on differences in bony plates on the head, the presence or absence of gular folds, and head shape, Gambelia sila was reclassified into the the genus Gambelia by Smith in 1946, retainingthe species name silus. This is the genus name for leopard lizards in the family Crotaphytidae. Gambelia sila is similar to the lizards in the genera Crotaphytus, the difference is that species of the genera Crotaphytus have fracture planes in their tails. This allows the tails to break off when grasped by predators. This reclassification remained controversial until Montanucci in 1970 proposed the argument for specific classification based on the differences between the long-nosed and blunt-nosed leopard lizards. Eventually the name was changed from "Gambelia silas" to "Gambelia sila" to agree in gender.