Greater short-horned lizard Greater short-horned lizard The greater short-horned lizard ("Phrynosoma hernandesi"), also commonly known as the mountain short-horned lizard, is a species of lizard endemic to western North America. Like other horned lizards, it is often called a "horned toad" or "horny toad", but it is not a toad at all. It is a reptile, not an amphibian. It is one of seven native species of lizards in Canada. The specific name, "hernandesi", honors Francisco Hernández (1514–1587) a Spanish physician who wrote an early account of a horned lizard, which was published in 1615. The greater short-horned lizard is often mistaken for
Arizona toad so the International Union for Conservation of Nature has assessed it as being of "least concern". Arizona toad The Arizona toad ("Anaxyrus microscaphus") is a species of toad in the family Bufonidae. It is endemic to the southwestern United States, where its natural habitats are temperate lowland forests, rivers and streams, swamps, freshwater marshes, freshwater springs, ponds, open excavations, irrigated land, and seasonally flooded agricultural land. The Arizona toad was first described by the American herpetologist Edward Drinker Cope in 1867. He named it "Bufo microscaphus" and the type locality was Fort Mohave, Arizona. It was commonly known as the