History of Study, Taxonomy, Distribution, and Ecology of <i>Phrynocephalus nasatus</i> Golubev et Dunayev, 1995 (Reptilia: Agamidae)

Abstract

Herein we provide a historical overview of the study of Phrynocephalus nasatus, a species that has been known by poorly preserved type materials only, collected by A. I. Wilkins in Aksu region, China, in 1883. Information on species ecology and distribution is given for the first time in 130 years. The species range consists of disjunct areas which are divided by river valleys covering 4000 km2, at the altitude of 2000 m a.s.l., in the eastern spurs of the Jengish Chokusu mountain. Ph. nasatus prefers clay-gravel biotopes with scattered vegetation. This species differs from Ph. axillaris, with which it was erroneously synonymized lately, by the utricular nasal scales (the trait is absent in all other species of this genera) and at least 23 other traits. The intravital coloration is described.

COI-Barcoding and Species Delimitation Assessment of Toad-Headed Agamas of the Genus Phrynocephalus (Agamidae, Squamata) Reveal Unrecognized Diversity in Central Eurasia

“…In the resulting COI gene tree for Phrynocephalus, most basal nodes remained unresolved, but the nodes at the level of species groups were generally well-resolved and received strong support both in BI and ML analyses (see Figures 2-4). Overall, the recovered topology was generally consistent with previous phylogenetic and phylogeographic studies on Phrynocephalus [2,7,[12][13][14][15][17][18][19]21,[83][84][85][86][87].…”

“…We obtained biological samples of Phrynocephalus from different scientific collections (see details in BOLD projects DS-ABLRP and DS-NPLRP [55]). Altogether, we analyzed COI sequence data for 385 specimens of Phrynocephalus, including 99 newly generated sequences, 204 sequences obtained during our previous studies of the group [2,[12][13][14][15]19,21], and 82 sequences which were downloaded from GenBank (see Supplementary Table S1). The taxonomic framework generally follows Solovyeva et al [2], Barabanov and Ananjeva [1], and the recent taxonomic reviews of Phrynocephalus [13][14][15][17][18][19]21].…”

“…Altogether, we analyzed COI sequence data for 385 specimens of Phrynocephalus, including 99 newly generated sequences, 204 sequences obtained during our previous studies of the group [2,[12][13][14][15]19,21], and 82 sequences which were downloaded from GenBank (see Supplementary Table S1). The taxonomic framework generally follows Solovyeva et al [2], Barabanov and Ananjeva [1], and the recent taxonomic reviews of Phrynocephalus [13][14][15][17][18][19]21]. For the detailed information on the localities and voucher specimens see Supplementary Table S1.…”

“…A number of recent studies have focused on molecular taxonomy and phylogenetic relationships of various Phrynocephalus species or species complexes [7,8,[13][14][15][16][17][18][19][20][21] and on structure of complete mitochondrial genomes [22][23][24][25][26]. However, there is a lack of comparative phylogenetic works based on large datasets for the whole genus, thus, further studies are needed to access the genetic diversity across the genus Phrynocephalus, estimate the levels of cryptic diversity, and eventually to stabilize the taxonomy of the group.…”

“…Although COI barcoding data can, in some cases, be used in studies on phylogenetic relationships and phylogeography, their primary application lies in species discovery and identification [29]. As such, COI barcoding was successfully applied for assessment of cryptic diversity across several species groups of the genus Phrynocephalus [13][14][15][17][18][19]21].…”