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Home/Species/ Eastern Black-tailed Rattlesnake

Crotalus ornatus

Hallowell, 1854

Eastern Black-tailed Rattlesnake

GNRUnranked Found in 13 roadless areas NatureServe Explorer →
GNRUnrankedGlobal Rank
Identity
Unique IDELEMENT_GLOBAL.2.1146772
Element CodeARADE02170
Record TypeSPECIES
ClassificationSpecies
Classification StatusStandard
Name CategoryVertebrate Animal
Endemicoccurs (regularly, as a native taxon) in multiple nations
KingdomAnimalia
PhylumCraniata
ClassReptilia
OrderSquamata
FamilyViperidae
GenusCrotalus
Concept Reference
Anderson, C. G. and E. Greenbaum. 2012. Phylogeography of northern populations of the Black-Tailed Rattlesnake (Crotalus molossus Baird And Girard, 1853), with the revalidation of C. ornatus Hallowell, 1854. Herpetological Monographs 26(1):19-57.
Taxonomic Comments
The northern populations of this species were examined in detail using a multi-locus nuclear dataset (Anderson and Greenbaum 2012), supporting recognition of Crotalus molossus for populations west of the Cochise Filter Barrier (from the Sonoran Desert west), and C. ornatus for eastern populations (from Chihuahuan Desert east), with a narrow contact zone.

The traditional view of rattlesnake taxonomy that recognizes the two monophyletic sister genera Crotalus and Sistrurus (e.g. Brattstrom 1964) has recently been challenged. Stille (1987) and McCranie (1988) presented data that suggested Sistrurus is not monophyletic and rendered Crotalus paraphyletic. Parkinson (1999) found Sistrurus monophyletic but its position rendered Crotalus paraphyletic. Knight et al. (1993) used mtDNA to defend the traditional generic taxonomy, but in order to do so ignored the most parsimonious tree. The genus Crotalus is monophyletic when including the Mexican C. ravus (Murphy et al. 2002), and is supported as such in most recent phylogenies, as well as being the sister taxon to a monophyletic Sistrurus (e.g., Pyron et al. 2013) (Crother 2017).
Ecology & Habitat
Other Nations (1)
United StatesNNR
ProvinceRankNative
New MexicoSNRYes
TexasSNRYes
Roadless Areas (13)
New Mexico (13)
AreaForestAcres
Apache Kid ContiguousCibola National Forest67,542
Brushy MountainGila National Forest7,199
Capitan MountainsLincoln National Forest14,069
Contiguous To Black & Aldo Leopold WildernessGila National Forest111,883
Dry CreekGila National Forest26,719
Last Chance CanyonLincoln National Forest8,934
Meadow CreekGila National Forest34,167
Ortega PeakLincoln National Forest11,545
Ryan HillCibola National Forest34,201
San JoseCibola National Forest16,950
Sawyers PeakGila National Forest59,743
South Guadalupe MountainsLincoln National Forest20,930
West Face Sacramento MountainsLincoln National Forest41,176
References (9)
  1. Anderson, C. G. and E. Greenbaum. 2012. Phylogeography of northern populations of the Black-Tailed Rattlesnake (<i>Crotalus molossus</i> Baird And Girard, 1853), with the revalidation of <i>C. ornatus</i> Hallowell, 1854. Herpetological Monographs 26(1):19-57.
  2. Brattstrom, B. H. 1964. Evolution of the pit vipers. Transactions of the San Diego Society of Natural History 13(11):185-268.
  3. Crother, B. I. (editor). 2017. Scientific and standard English names of amphibians and reptiles of North America north of Mexico, with comments regarding confidence in our understanding. 8th edition. SSAR Herpetological Circular 43:1-104. [Updates in SSAR North American Species Names Database at: https://ssarherps.org/cndb]
  4. Knight, A., D. Styer, S. Pelikan, J. A. Campbell, L. D. Densmore III, and D. P. Mindell. 1993. Choosing among hypotheses of rattlesnake phylogeny: a best-fit rate test for DNA sequence data. Systematic Biology 42(3):356-367.
  5. McCranie, J. R. 1988. Description of the hemipenis of <i>Sistrurus ravus </i>(Serpentes: Viperidae). Herpetologica 44:123-126.
  6. Murphy, R. W., J. Fu, and A. Lathrop. 2002. Phylogeny of the rattlesnakes (<i>Crotalus </i>and <i>Sistrurus</i>) inferred from sequences of five mitochondrial DNA genes. Pages 69-92 in G. W. Schuett, M. Hoggren, M. E. Douglas, and H. W. Greene, editors. Biology of the Vipers. Eagle Mountain Publishing, Eagle Mountain, Utah.
  7. Parkinson, C. L. 1999. Molecular systematics and biogeographical history of pitvipers as determined by mitochondrial ribosomal DNA sequences. Copeia 1999:576-586.
  8. Pyron, R. A., F. T. Burbrink, and J. J. Wiens. 2013. A phylogeny and revised classification of Squamata, including 4161 species of lizards and snakes. BMC Evolutionary Biology 29:131.
  9. Stille, B. 1987. Dorsal scale microdermatoglyphics and rattlesnake (<i>Crotalus </i>and <i>Sistrurus</i>) phylogeny (Reptilia: Viperidae: Crotalinae). Herpetologica:98-104.