Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I went on a very successful hike today (found 10 Phrynosoma coronatum along with many other species, the Phrynosoma coronatum was the most often seen). Well I'll get to the point of the post. I noticed that two localities about a mile apart had completely seperate morphs, I will refer to them as lowland and highland being that the two morphs existed at the base of the hills and the highland occured at the tops of the hills. Well, all collected in the lowland areas were of a typical tan-brown variety with the occasoinal red coloring on the head. Their terrain is very rocky and well vegatated with tan black and brown soil and rocks. On the other hand, the top of the hills had a rich red color to the ground with white underlining it (sandstone basically), the Phrynosoma coronatum living there all had strong blood red bands on their back and white to light tan coloration in between the red bands. I just though it to be wuite odd that with only a mile difference the populations looked so different. Also just on a bright note, the populatoin seems to be rebounding, 9/10 of the lizards caught where juveniles, 5 years back it was more like 3/10 and they were harder to find. I can post pictures in a few days if anybody would like to see what I am talking about.
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Devlin Gandy
I keep many rare and unusual lizards

This kind of morphological variation is not unusual at all. There are morphological variations with hatchlings of the same clutch of eggs. Populations at my study sites show variation withing close boundries. The variation is partially genetic and partially natural selection (which are close to being the same thing).

Coloration is in most situations site dependent and a product of natural selection (survivability). A light grey HL will have a very hard time surviving in an area where reddish soils are predominant, and vise-versa.

Lester G. Milroy III

So which state do u live in? Do you ever encounter P. modestum?
I f so e-mail me @ tankboy42069@yahoo.com

Thanx,
MXCN