Endemic Species of Mexico

Mexico’s endemic biota is documented through separate taxonomic inventories with different dates, ranks, and coverage. Endemism is treated here as restriction of the natural native range to Mexico or to a smaller geographic unit within Mexico; no synthetic all-taxa total is created from unlike datasets. ^[S1]

Data boundaries

• The 2026 CONABIO bird catalogue contains 1,130 valid species and covers records that include hypothetical, extinct, and established introduced birds. Its 1,130 figure is therefore not substituted for the 1,124-species denominator used with the 109 endemic species in the 2024 public summary. ^{[S9] [S7]}
• The online 2026 herpetofauna inventory gives 296 endemic amphibians and 597 endemic reptiles. Those subgroup values sum to 893, while the same page separately prints a combined endemic figure of 895. The combined figure is not used here. ^[S5]
• The 2025 mammal catalogue distinguishes 210 endemic species from 125 endemic subspecies. Only the species-rank figure enters the national species profile. ^[S4]
• The 2025 fish and lamprey catalogue separates 3,659 native species, 202 introduced species, and 2,807 synonym-status taxa. The endemic share shown above uses the native-species denominator only. ^[S6]

Geographic concentration

Endemism in Mexico can be national or nested within states, islands, mountain systems, caves, lakes, rivers, and springs. A species restricted to one such unit is also Mexican-endemic when that entire natural range lies inside the country. ^[S1]

Rare endemic vascular plants by state

A 2024 grid-cell analysis identified 2,705 rare Mexican endemic vascular plant species, defining “rare” as recorded in one grid square. Of these, 2,042 species were exclusive to one state in the study’s distribution matrix. State occurrence counts overlap when the same species occurs in more than one state, so the state rows must not be summed to recreate the national total. ^[S10]

{"type":"bar","title":"Rare endemic vascular plants recorded in one grid square","description":"Five states with the largest counts in the 2024 grid-cell analysis.","unit":"species","orientation":"horizontal","data":[{"label":"Oaxaca","value":615},{"label":"Jalisco","value":296},{"label":"Guerrero","value":270},{"label":"Chiapas","value":248},{"label":"Veracruz","value":240}],"source":"[S10] The rarest of rarities in the flora of Mexico"}

Cuatro Ciénegas and upper Río Salado fishes

The Cuatro Ciénegas basin in Coahuila contains multiple freshwater fishes identified as endemic by the Desert Fishes Council. The same specialist account also identifies Etheostoma segrex as endemic to the upper Río Salado de los Nadadores just outside the basin. ^[S11]

Verified endemic species checklist

Bird family records

The table includes every species marked EN for Mexican endemism in 12 selected families in CONABIO’s AOS 2021 national list. The newer 2026 CONABIO catalogue supplies current catalogue context but is not used to rewrite the source-defined 2021 family subset. ^{[S12] [S9]}

Genus-defined amphibian records

The 2025 published herpetofauna inventory records 10 of 11 native Ambystoma species and all seven native Aquiloeurycea species as endemic to Mexico. The national statistics above use the newer 2026 online inventory, while this checklist section preserves the species identities in the published 2025 genus tables. ^{[S13] [S5]}

Genus-defined reptile records

Seven genera in the 2025 inventory provide compact species-level sets with explicit native and endemic totals. Only endemic species within those source-defined genera are listed below. ^[S13]

Current accepted plant names

The plant records below use accepted names and native-range statements from Plants of the World Online. Narrow ranges are retained when the source provides them.

Taxonomic revisions that change checklist names

• Kew accepts Echinoagave albopilosa; Agave albopilosa is listed as a synonym. ^[S22]
• Kew accepts Kroenleinia grusonii; Echinocactus grusonii is listed as a synonym. ^[S23]
• The August 2026 herpetofauna update reports the snake genus Mixcoatlus as synonymized under Ophryacus, illustrating why national endemic totals can move when taxonomic treatments change. ^[S5]