NATURAL HISTORY · CATALOGUE RECORD
Desert Night Lizard
Xantusia vigilis Baird, 1859
Source-backed taxonomic record
Accepted species in Catalogue of Life’s 11 September 2026 base release. This preserves the source classification and available supporting data; it is not a completed species monograph.
Open encyclopedia reference
The desert night lizard (Xantusia vigilis) is a night lizard native to the Southern California Eastern Sierra and the San Gabriel Mountains into Baja California, southern Nevada, southwestern Utah and extreme western areas of Arizona.
Wikipedia contributors, Desert night lizard; see linked history · CC BY-SA 4.0 . Plain-text lead excerpt, at most 180 words; no infobox or later sections Retrieved 2026-10-05T08:18:48.107781+00:00. This reference remains separate from the taxonomic record.
Identity & source status
- Scientific name
- Xantusia vigilis Baird, 1859
- Name authority
- Baird, 1859
- Common name
- Desert Night Lizard
- Rank
- species
- Accepted status
- accepted
- Kingdom
- Animalia
- Phylum
- Chordata
- Class
- Reptilia
- Order
- Squamata
- Family
- Xantusiidae
- Genus
- Xantusia
- Extinction status
- Not supplied by this source
Classification family tree
Nested taxonomic groups from the source. This is not a direct-ancestor chain, a dated evolutionary tree or a phylogenetic reconstruction.
- domainEukaryota (Chatton, 1925) Whittaker & Margulis, 1978
- kingdomAnimalia
- phylumChordata
- subphylumVertebrata
- infraphylumGnathostomata
- parvphylumOsteichthyes
- megaclassTetrapoda
- classReptilia Laurenti, 1768
- orderSquamata Oppel, 1811
- suborderAutarchoglossa
- familyXantusiidae
- subfamilyXantusiinae
- genusXantusia
- speciesXantusia vigilis Baird, 1859
Close classified relatives
These entries share the source’s genus, Xantusia. They are not necessarily the closest relatives established by molecular evidence.
| Species | Classification | Source status |
|---|---|---|
| Arizona Night LizardXantusia arizonae Klauber, 1931 | XantusiidaeChordata | Accepted speciesExtinction status not supplied |
| Bolson Night LizardXantusia bolsonae Webb, 1970 | XantusiidaeChordata | Accepted speciesExtinction status not supplied |
| Baja California Night LizardXantusia gilberti Van Denburgh, 1895 | XantusiidaeChordata | Accepted speciesExtinction status not supplied |
| Sandstone Night LizardXantusia gracilis Grismer & Galvan, 1986 | XantusiidaeChordata | Accepted speciesExtinction status not supplied |
| Granite Night LizardXantusia henshawi Stejneger, 1893 | XantusiidaeChordata | Accepted speciesExtinction status not supplied |
| Xantusia jaycolei Bezy, Bezy & Bolles, 2008 | XantusiidaeChordata | Accepted speciesExtinction status not supplied |
| Island Night LizardXantusia riversiana Cope, 1883 | XantusiidaeChordata | Accepted speciesExtinction status not supplied |
| Sanchez's Night LizardXantusia sanchezi Bezy & Flores-Villela, 1999 | XantusiidaeChordata | Accepted speciesExtinction status not supplied |
| Xantusia sherbrookei Bezy, Bezy & Bolles, 2008 | XantusiidaeChordata | Accepted speciesExtinction status not supplied |
| Bezy's Night LizardXantusia bezyi Papenfuss, Macey & Schulte, 2001 | XantusiidaeChordata | Accepted speciesExtinction status not supplied |
| Durangoan Night LizardXantusia extorris Webb, 1965 | XantusiidaeChordata | Accepted speciesExtinction status not supplied |
| Wiggins' Desert Night LizardXantusia wigginsi Savage, 1952 | XantusiidaeChordata | Accepted speciesExtinction status not supplied |
Names & synonyms
Names explicitly linked to this accepted taxon in the source. Synonymy can change with revision.
| Recorded name | Source status |
|---|---|
| Xantusia vigilis utahensis Tanner, 1957 Tanner, 1957 | synonym |
Documented distribution
Source distribution statements, not a complete range map. A listed locality is not necessarily a place of origin.
Source literature & publication evidence
References attached to this source record, including nomenclatural citations where supplied. This is a selected bibliography; abbreviated citations remain in the source’s form.
- https://reptile-database.reptarium.cz/species?genus=Xantusia&species=vigilis Source fields: Taxon.tsv dwc:namePublishedIn, Taxon.tsv dcterms:references
Origins, evidence & remaining research
Name authority and publication references document nomenclature where the source supplies it. They do not establish evolutionary origins or the earliest fossil occurrence.
Specimen-level evidence, morphology, ecological research, phylogenetic studies, a comprehensive bibliography and a located literary passage have not yet been compiled for this record. A suitable sourced image remains to be added.
Dataset citation & attribution
This exact taxon in ChecklistBank · Catalogue of Life 2026-09-11
Catalogue of Life 2026-09-11; dataset 316321; doi:10.48580/dgz5n. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ . Retrieved 5 October 2026.
Stable key: col:5C8PB. Classification follows source parent identifiers. English common names may vary by region.