Revision of the Pygmy Spiny-tailed Skinks (Egernia depressa species-group) from Western Australia, with descriptions of three new species

Doughty, Paul; Kealley, Luke; Donnellan, Stephen C.

doi:10.18195/issn.0312-3162.26(2).2011.115-137

Cited by 14 publications

(17 citation statements)

References 5 publications

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“…A noteworthy result of our survey was that many new or synonomised taxa were vouchered and have provided the material for new descriptions (e.g. Smith and Adams 2007;Mecke et al 2009;Doughty et al 2010Doughty et al , 2011Catullo et al 2011) or are the subject of current revisions. Resolution of these taxonomic problems will likely lead to even higher diversity estimates to the already high herpetofaunal diversity recognised in the region.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…A pattern emerges of species adapted to rocks appearing to be isolated in the Pilbara more readily than those on other surfaces (e.g. Pepper et al 2006Oliver et al 2010;Doughty et al 2011). In contrast, perhaps quite restrictive conditions must occur for sand or clay-associated taxa to speciate, as there are large areas of suitable habitat surrounding the Pilbara region Shoo et al 2008).…”

Section: Patterns Of Endemism Within Species Groupsmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Herpetological assemblages of the Pilbara biogeographic region, Western Australia: ecological associations, biogeographic patterns and conservation

Doughty¹,

Rolfe²,

Burbidge³

et al. 2011

Rec West Aust Mus Sup

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-The Pilbara region has one of the most diverse reptile assemblages in the world and includes many typical arid zone species as well as many saxicoline endemics. We present the results of a four-year survey of the region during which pitfall trap lines were used to sample 297 quadrats for a total of two weeks in spring and in autumn. The quadrats were located across the region and were chosen to sample the main substrate types. Environmental variables were measured to characterise the soil as well as the geomorphic, vegetative and climatic setting of each quadrat. We used the program PATN to expose patterns in species composition among quadrats, and in relation to the environmental variables.A strong signal for community structure emerged that was linked to surface type. Broad rock, clay, sand and loam categorisations seemed to explain most assemblage composition, with climatic variables showing only weak infl uence. However, many taxa occurred across several surface types, refl ecting the close juxtaposition of habitats within the region, wide dispersion of some taxa, and perhaps the infl uence of recent environmental history including anthropogenic changes.Examination of biogeographic characteristics of the species groups indicated strong endemism for taxa that preferred rocky substrates. In addition, many saxicoline Pilbara taxa have ranges that extend south into rocky areas of the Gascoyne, western Murchison and adjacent areas. Sandy habitats similar to those found in the Pilbara are widespread across Australia's arid zone, and accordingly few endemic taxa showed a preference for sandy surface types, and taxa with such preferences have distributions extending far beyond the Pilbara. The sandy areas of the coastal plain in the Roebourne subregion contained many taxa from Dampierland and the Great Sandy Desert to the north and north-east, as well as some taxa from the rich sand-adapted fauna of the Carnarvon region to the south. Some endemic taxa are associated with clay in the region, although clay surfaces were not as extensive as the rocky, loamy and sandy surfaces. Species associated with the fi ne-textured soils of the mulga woodlands in the southern part of the region appear to be an extension of herpetofaunal communities of regions to the south.Herpetofauna composition at the regional scale appears to have persisted, and patterns discerned in our analysis appear robust, despite the changes that have accompanied European colonisation in the Pilbara, including pastoralism, changed fi re regimes, weeds, introduced animals, mining and infrastructure. However, the existing reserve system does not adequately capture the region's herpetofaunal diversity, especially the endemic taxa in the Fortescue and Roebourne subregions, and there are likely to have been changes in community composition at the local level.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Patterns Of Endemism Within Species Groupsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Herpetological assemblages of the Pilbara biogeographic region, Western Australia: ecological associations, biogeographic patterns and conservation

Doughty¹,

Rolfe²,

Burbidge³

et al. 2011

Rec West Aust Mus Sup

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“…Conservation underassessment is particularly dire in Australia, where only 15% of lizard species have been assessed by the IUCN. This could be due to the rapid rate of species discovery and description in Australia over the past decade (Uetz and Hosek, 2015), which has been driven by a recent research focus on remote regions of the monsoon wet tropics (reviewed in Rosauer et al, in this issue) and integrated taxonomic approaches that have uncovered multiple new taxa within existing widespread species (Oliver et al, 2009(Oliver et al, , 2010Doughty et al, 2011Doughty et al, , 2015. As species that have been known (i.e.…”

Section: Distributional Life History Ecological and Taxonomic Biasmentioning

confidence: 99%

Biases in the current knowledge of threat status in lizards, and bridging the ‘assessment gap’

Meiri

Chapple

2016

Biological Conservation

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“…However, morphological differences between retreat preferences have been observed at a sub-species level (e.g. cranial differences in Egernia depressa; Doughty et al, 2011;Hollenshead, 2011).…”

Section: Morphological Specialisations For Burrowingmentioning

confidence: 99%

Morphology and burrowing energetics of semi-fossorial skinks (Liopholis)

Alton

Clemente

et al. 2015

Journal of Experimental Biology

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Burrowing is an important form of locomotion in reptiles, but no study has examined the energetic cost of burrowing for reptiles. This is significant because burrowing is the most energetically expensive mode of locomotion undertaken by animals and many burrowing species therefore show specialisations for their subterranean lifestyle. We examined the effect of temperature and substrate characteristics (coarse sand or fine sand) on the net energetic cost of burrowing (NCOB) and burrowing rate in two species of the Egernia group of skinks (Liopholis striata and Liopholis inornata) compared with other burrowing animals. We further tested for morphological specialisations among burrowing species by comparing the relationship between body shape and retreat preference in Egernia group skinks. For L. striata and L. inornata, NCOB is 350 times more expensive than the predicted cost of pedestrian terrestrial locomotion. Temperature had a positive effect on burrowing rate for both species, and a negative effect on NCOB for L. striata but not L. inornata. Both NCOB and burrowing rate were independent of substrate type. Burrows constructed by skinks had a smaller cross-sectional area than those constructed by mammals of comparable mass, and NCOB of skinks was lower than that of mammals of similar mass. After accounting for body size, retreat preference was significantly correlated with body shape in Egernia group skinks. Species of Egernia group skinks that use burrows for retreats have narrower bodies and shorter front limbs than other species. We conclude that the morphological specialisations of burrowing skinks allow them to construct relatively narrow burrows, thereby reducing NCOB and the total cost of constructing their burrow retreats.

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Revision of the Pygmy Spiny-tailed Skinks (Egernia depressa species-group) from Western Australia, with descriptions of three new species

Cited by 14 publications

References 5 publications

Herpetological assemblages of the Pilbara biogeographic region, Western Australia: ecological associations, biogeographic patterns and conservation

Herpetological assemblages of the Pilbara biogeographic region, Western Australia: ecological associations, biogeographic patterns and conservation

Biases in the current knowledge of threat status in lizards, and bridging the ‘assessment gap’

Morphology and burrowing energetics of semi-fossorial skinks (Liopholis)

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