Amphibian and reptile species occurrences in the Tana River Basin, Kenya, digitized from preserved specimens at the National Museums of Kenya

The dataset contains Tana River Basin species occurrence records for amphibians and reptiles digitized from the herpetological collection at the National Museums of Kenya. Label data was transcribed and collection localities were georeferenced using GeoLocate if not provided on the specimen labels. The taxonomy follows nomenclature standards by Channing & Howell (2006) and Spawls et al. (2018). The dataset comprises 58 amphibian species in 23 genera and 15 families which is about 53 percent of all known amphibians species in Kenya. With regard to reptiles, there are 136 species in 67 genera and 16 families which is about 45 percent of all known reptile species in Kenya. Among the interesting taxa are Tana River Basin endemics such as Hyperolius cystocandicans, Boulengerula denhardti, Boulengerula spawlsi, Schistometopum gregori, Atheris desaixi, Kinyongia excubitor, Trioceros schubotzi, Thrasops schmidti, Phrynobatrachus irangi, and the rare taxa such as Phrynobatrachus irangi. Tana River Basin ecosystem is therefore a critical habitat for the conservation of endemic taxa.