In:
ZooKeys, Pensoft Publishers, Vol. 1141 ( 2023-01-19), p. 119-148
Abstract:
The systematic study of biodiversity underlies appropriate inference in most other fields of biological research, yet it remains hampered by disagreements on both theoretical and empirical issues such as the species concept and the operational diagnosis of a species. Both become particularly challenging in those lineages where morphological traits are evolutionarily constrained by their adaptive value. For instance, cryptic organisms often conserve or converge in their external appearance, which hinders the recognition of species boundaries. An integrative approach has been adopted to study microgeographic variation in the leaf-litter lizard Pholidobolus vertebralis and test three predictions derived from the evolutionary species concept. Molecular data provided unambiguous evidence of divergence among the three recovered new clades and a common evolutionary history for each of them. The broadly sympatric clades were indeed diagnosable from externally visible traits, such as head scales, adult size, and sexually dimorphic ventral colouration. Also, they barely overlapped on the phenotypic space that summarised 39 morphometric and meristic traits. These clades are described as three species and an available name is suggested for a recovered fourth clade. The geographic distribution of the new and proximate species suggests a role for elevation on evolutionary divergence; it also raises interesting questions on the speciation pattern of an otherwise underestimated cryptic lineage.
Type of Medium:
Online Resource
ISSN:
1313-2970
,
1313-2989
DOI:
10.3897/zookeys.1141.94774
DOI:
10.3897/zookeys.1141.94774.figure1
DOI:
10.3897/zookeys.1141.94774.figure2
DOI:
10.3897/zookeys.1141.94774.figure3
DOI:
10.3897/zookeys.1141.94774.figure4
DOI:
10.3897/zookeys.1141.94774.figure5
DOI:
10.3897/zookeys.1141.94774.figure6
DOI:
10.3897/zookeys.1141.94774.figure7
DOI:
10.3897/zookeys.1141.94774.suppl1
DOI:
10.3897/zookeys.1141.94774.suppl2
Language:
Unknown
Publisher:
Pensoft Publishers
Publication Date:
2023
detail.hit.zdb_id:
2445640-8
SSG:
12
Permalink