Asian Agamid lizards (Agamidae, Acrodonta, Sauria, Reptilia): Phylogenetic and taxonomic diversity

Abstract

Asian Agamid lizards (Agamidae, Acrodonta, Sauria, Reptilia): Phylogenetic and taxonomic diversity The Southeast Asian-Indonesian and Australian-New Guinean tectonic plates have both been hypothesized to be centers of origin of agamid lizards (Moody, 1980). The Asian continent housed a number of hotspots of plant and animal diversity and endemism, important for the conservation of biodiversity on a global scale. There are many threatened areas in tropical Asia in terms of destruction of tropical rain forest as an environment with a unique biota and herpetofauna in particular. New intensive studies of the Asian fauna as well as new opportunities offered by molecular methods make it clear that taxonomic diversity is underestimated, especially in South and Southeast Asia. The aim of this paper is to show the taxonomic diversity of different evolutionary lineages and the distribution of agamids by sub region in Asia. We compare several Asian territories well studied in diversity of agamids: