A new species of leaf-toed gecko (Phyllodactylidae, Phyllodactylus) from María Cleofas Island, Nayarit, Mexico

Abstract

We describe a new species of leaf-toed gecko of the genus Phyllodactylus from María Cleofas Island, the smallest island of Tres Marías Archipelago, Nayarit, México. Genomic, phylogenomic, and morphological evidence support that the new species presents a unique combination of diagnostic characters. Morphologically, the new species has a high number of tubercles, head to tail (mean 47), longitudinal ventral scales (mean 61), and third labial–snout scales (mean 26). Gene flow tests revealed the genetic isolation of insular populations from mainland counterparts. In addition, we confirmed the non-monophyly of P. homolepidurus and P. nolascoensis, and we show that the taxon P. t. saxatilis is a complex; therefore, we propose taxonomic changes within the saxatilis clade. The discovery of this new insular endemic species highlights the urgency of continued exploration of the biological diversity of island faunas of Mexico.

An updated checklist of the herpetofauna from Isla María Cleofas, Mexico

“…Zweifel (1960) proposed that Urosaurus ornatus reached most of the Islas Marías archipelago by dispersal over water from mainland populations in Sinaloa. Recent studies of the genomics and phylogenomics of leaf-toed geckos (genus Phyllodactylus Gray, 1828), showed that P. cleofasensis diverged from mainland populations about 7 Ma ago (Ramírez-Reyes et al 2020, 2021a, but, most surprisingly, its sister species is P. saxatilis (Dixon, 1964) from Villa Unión, Sinaloa. All of this suggests that the reptile diversity in the archipelago is more complex than has been previously envisioned.…”

“…The above-referenced studies exclude the Islas Marias Archipelago Biosphere Reserve, which is one of the most herpetological diverse land-bridge islands in the Mexican Pacific (Pliego-Sánchez et al 2021). To our knowledge, there seems to be a consensus among herpetologists that amphibians and reptiles from the Mexican Central Pacific islands are representatives of taxa found on the adjacent mainland (Zweifel 1960;Casas-Andreu 1992;Woolrich-Piña et al 2016;Pliego-Sánchez et al 2021), but they also recognize that different ecological and evolutionary pressures could have influenced morphological and behavioral traits of these insular populations (Rodríguez and Drummond 2000;Senczuk et al 2014;Siliceo-Cantero et al 2016;Ramírez-Reyes et al 2021a).…”

“…During these visits two amphibians were recorded, Eleutherodactylus pallidus Duellman, 1958 andSmilisca baudinii (Duméril &Bibron, 1841), and for the first time the snake Rhadinaea hesperia Bailey, 1940(Nolasco-Luna et al 2017. As a result of these explorations, specimens of Phyllodactylus were secured on Isla María Cleofas, and it was demonstrated that island populations were genetically isolated from mainland populations (Ramírez-Reyes et al 2021a, 2021b, which consequently lead to the description of a new species: P. cleofasensis (Ramírez-Reyes et al 2021a). Based on the information mentioned above, we provide an updated checklist of the amphibians and reptiles of Isla María Cleofas, including three new records, description of new species, and taxonomic changes.…”

Genomic assessment of the Phyllodactylus tuberculosus complex (Reptilia: Phyllodactylidae) in America

“…nov. for populations from the type locality (Villa Union, Sinaloa sensu Dixon, 1964) and the nearest population from Cosala, Sinaloa (Figure 4), differentiated from a possible new species inhabiting lowlands of Sonora. The formal description of the lineage that inhabits the island of Maria Cleofas was elaborated, mainly due to the evidence of remarkable genetic isolation (Ramírez‐Reyes et al., 2021). Finally, greater population and genomic sampling is required to identify the evolutionary processes that best explain the close relationship that exists in insular and continental taxa Phyllodactylus in Northwest Mexico, and in particular the close relationship among P. partidus , P. homolepidurus, P. nolascoensis and some lineages of Phyllodactylus sp.…”

The insular herpetofauna of Mexico: Composition, conservation, and biogeographic patterns

“…Recent phylogenetic studies on Mexican islands led to the description of two insular endemic rattlesnakes (Meik et al, 2018), the elevation to species of synonymous insular snake populations (Cox et al, 2018), and the proposal to elevate three subspecies of island geckos (recognized as subspecies by Ramírez- Reyes et al, 2021;Ramírez-Reyes & Flores-Villela, 2018;Uetz & Hošek, 2020).…”