Hi -
I just read a paper in the ejournal PLOS ONE on taxonomy of the Prairie
Rattlesnake / Pacific Rattlesnake complex.
Its pretty technical - uses some pretty detailed analyses of head shape as well
as mtDNA analyses. The conclusion is that there are 9 "operational taxonomic
units" in the complex, and that 6 of them should be recognized as separate
species. For Oregon, this means that we have 2 species:
Crotalis oregoni North Pacific Rattlesnake, would include the snakes west of
the Cascades, along the Columbia River, lower Snake River, Deschutes Basin, and
Klamath Basin.
Crotalis lutosus Great Basin Rattlesnake, would include those in southeastern
Oregon. I could not tell where the boundaries would be in several areas. For
example, not sure about the John Day Basin or where on the snake they would
divide.
I tried tc cut and paste the citation, below.
Wayne
Deconstructing a Species-Complex: Geometric Morphometric and Molecular Analyses
Define Species in the Western Rattlesnake ( Crotalus viridis )
* Mark A. Davis ,
* Marlis R. Douglas,
* Michael L. Collyer,
* Michael E. Douglas
* Published: January 27, 2016
* DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0146166
