Coachella Valley fringe-toed lizard
Scientific classification Edit this classification
Domain: Eukaryota
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Reptilia
Order: Squamata
Suborder: Iguania
Family: Phrynosomatidae
Genus: Uma
Species:
U. inornata
Binomial name
Uma inornata
Cope, 1895

The Coachella Valley fringe-toed lizard (Uma inornata) is a species of phrynosomatid lizard.[2]

Phylogeny and evolution

The species is most closely related to Uma notata, the Colorado Desert fringe-toed lizard. Genetic variation within the species is small, equivalent to that of one population of Uma notata.[3] The species population is isolated from other closely related lizards.[3]

Characteristics

The species is well adapted to its desert habitat. It has a wedged-shaped nose which enables it to burrow through loose, fine sand. Elongated scales cover the ears to keep out blowing sand, and specialized nostrils allow it to breathe below the sand without inhaling sand particles.[4]

Ecology, behaviour, and feeding

During breeding season, male lizards minimize time spent foraging for food to maximize time for mating. They preferentially ate readily-available flowers rather than spending time foraging.[5] Female lizards observed an energy-maximizing feeding strategy all-year around.[5]

More specifically, in terms of feeding, the Coachella Valley fringe-toed lizard is omnivorous. Their diet consists of ants, beetles, flowers, leaves, spiders, and sometimes even their own shed skin.[6] This, however, varies by season. During the spring, they tend to consume flowers and plant-dwelling arthropods, and during the summer, this switches to ground-dwelling arthropods and leaves.[7] Adult males and females have different diets only during breeding season, where males consume ants and plants in the mornings, whilst females feed on ants and other insects throughout the day.[8]

The Coachella Valley fringe-toed lizards are talented as they are able to identify when there is an arthropod present underground, and dig them out of the sand to consume. In fact, they are agile and sometimes even jump to catch flowers that are too tall. Their water consumption is likely through their food.[9]

Habitat and distribution

The lizard is endemic to Coachella Valley, California.[2] The lizard is restricted to habitats with fine, windblown sand deposits in the sandy plains of the Coachella Valley, Riverside County, California. Since the 1970s, estimates of this species' habitat has decreased by about 75% due to human activities. Only a small portion of its original habitat has wind blowing in the fine sand that creates the “blowsand” habitat that it needs to survive.[4]

The Coachella Valley fringe-toed lizard's habitat has been negatively affected in the past 3 decades, due to increases in the human population, urban development, off-roading, and non-native invasive plants. Thus, the Coachella Valley fringe-toed lizard was declared as federally threatened and endangered in 1980.[10]

Unfortunately, there have been severe droughts in California and the Coachella Valley. In 2002, the yearly precipitation was below 10mm.[11] Low precipitation and frequent droughts reduce the growth of plants and food sources for the Coachella Valley fringe-toed lizard. The lack of food sources contribute to a species' survival, thus this may be a cause for the decrease in mean reproductive productivity and decline in mean hatchling numbers and population densities.

Conservation status

It is listed as an endangered species in California, a threatened species in the United States, and the IUCN classifies it as endangered.[4][12]

Refuge

The Coachella Valley National Wildlife Refuge, for the Coachella Valley fringe-toed lizard, is contained within the Coachella Valley Preserve, and Indio Hills Palms State Reserve, located east of Palm Springs near Palm Desert, California, in the Colorado Desert region of the Sonoran Desert.

References

  1. ↑ Hammerson, G.A. (2007). "Uma inornata". IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. 2007: e.T22727A9380224. doi:10.2305/IUCN.UK.2007.RLTS.T22727A9380224.en. Retrieved 20 November 2021.
  2. 1 2 Durtsche, Richard D. (1995). "Foraging Ecology of the Fringe-Toed Lizard, Uma inornata, during Periods of High and Low Food Abundance". Copeia. 1995 (4): 915–926. doi:10.2307/1447040. ISSN 0045-8511. JSTOR 1447040.
  3. 1 2 Trépanier, Tanya L.; Murphy, Robert W. (2001-03-01). "The Coachella Valley Fringe-Toed Lizard (Uma inornata): Genetic Diversity and Phylogenetic Relationships of an Endangered Species". Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution. 18 (3): 327–334. doi:10.1006/mpev.2000.0881. ISSN 1055-7903. PMID 11277627.
  4. 1 2 3 U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. Coachella Valley Fringe-toed Lizard
  5. 1 2 Durtsche, Richard D. (1992). "Feeding Time Strategies of the Fringe-Toed Lizard, Uma inornata, during Breeding and Non-Breeding Seasons". Oecologia. 89 (1): 85–89. doi:10.1007/BF00319019. ISSN 0029-8549. JSTOR 4219853. PMID 28313399. S2CID 22038808.
  6. ↑ Marangio, M (2023). "California Wildlife Habitat Relationships System" (PDF).
  7. ↑ DeVos, Tyler. "Uma inornata (Coachella Valley Fringe-toed Lizard)". Animal Diversity Web. Retrieved 2023-10-14.
  8. ↑ Kaufmann, J. S. (1982). "Patterns of habitat resource utilization in a population of Uma scoparia, the Mojave fringe-toed lizard". M. S. Thesis, Univ. Illinois, Chicago: 78.
  9. ↑ Mayhew, Wilbur W. (1968), "BIOLOGY OF DESERT AMPHIBIANS AND REPTILES", Desert Biology, Elsevier, pp. 195–356, ISBN 978-1-4831-9868-2, retrieved 2023-10-14
  10. ↑ "Coachella Valley Fringe-toed Lizard (Uma inornata) | U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service". FWS.gov. Retrieved 2023-10-14.
  11. ↑ Chen, Xiongwen; Barrows, Cameron W.; Li, Bai-Lian (2006). "Is the Coachella Valley Fringe-Toed Lizard (Uma inornata) on the Edge of Extinction at Thousand Palms Preserve in California?". The Southwestern Naturalist. 51 (1): 28–34. ISSN 0038-4909.
  12. ↑ Hammerson, G.A. (2007). "Uma inornata". IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. 2007: e.T22727A9380224. doi:10.2305/IUCN.UK.2007.RLTS.T22727A9380224.en. Retrieved 20 November 2021. Listed as Endangered (EN A1a, B1+2c v2.3)
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