Spots before the eyes: revision of the saxicoline geckos of the Gehyra punctata (Squamata: Gekkonidae) species complex in the Pilbara region of Western Australia

Doughty, Paul; Bauer, Aaron M.; Pepper, Mitzy; Keogh, J. Scott

doi:10.18195/issn.0312-3162.33(1).2018.001-050

Cited by 7 publications

(7 citation statements)

References 36 publications

(105 reference statements)

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“…Afonso Silva, Bragg, et al, ; Laver, Doughty, & Oliver, ; Oliver, Couper, & Pepper, ). The major exception in the AZ is for taxa occupying the major topographic refugia, in particular the Pilbara craton, which often shows complex and localized phylogeographic structure or in situ speciation (Ashman et al, ; Doughty, Bauer, Pepper, & Keogh, ; Keally et al, ; Pepper et al, ). Evidence of multiple refugia across the AZ is prevalent in broadly distributed species of geckos and agamids that are specialists of disjunct habitats, such as stony deserts or major rocky ranges (Table ).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Contrasting scales of local persistence between monsoonal and arid biomes in closely related, low‐dispersal vertebrates

Potter

Silva

Bragg

et al. 2019

Journal of Biogeography

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Aim Focussing on pairs of sister species across three genera of scincid lizards, we use genomic evidence to test for larger‐scale, late‐Pleistocene changes in distributions of lizards in the Australian arid zone (AZ) than in the adjacent monsoonal tropics (MT). Location Northern and central Australia. Taxon Scincidae: Squamata. Methods We sequenced ~2000 nuclear exons and one mitochondrial gene across the distributions of species with primarily MT or AZ distributions from three genera of lizards. Using phylogenetic analysis and population structure analyses we identified major phylogeographic lineages and then compared the spatial scale of structuring and tested for recent demographic expansions. Results Two genera in particular, Proablepharus and Morethia, showed deeper and more geographically localized phylogeographic diversity in the MT than the AZ. In the MT, localized diversity was prevalent in the relatively mesic regions. By contrast, the AZ was characterized by widespread and often genetically uniform lineages and a higher proportion of these had signals of recent population expansion. Main conclusions Consistent with other recent, but mostly less genetically extensive studies, our results point to deeper and more localized diversity in MT compared to AZ. In turn, this suggests higher local persistence in more mesic and topographically diverse biome through the late Quaternary climate fluctuations. For the AZ, geographically extensive range expansions have likely contributed to the low spatial turnover of this exceptionally rich lizard fauna.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Contrasting scales of local persistence between monsoonal and arid biomes in closely related, low‐dispersal vertebrates

Potter

Silva

Bragg

et al. 2019

Journal of Biogeography

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“…independently arboreal G. chimera sp. nov. and G. australis group; Oliver et al, 2019), body size evolution associated with establishment of sympatric assemblages (Doughty et al, 2018a;Moritz et al, 2018) and the high prevalence of short-range taxa in complex rocky environments (Ashman et al, 2018), and association of chromosome change with , PeerJ, DOI 10.7717/peerj.7971 48/56 speciation (King, 1979(King, , 1983bMoritz, 1986). On the latter, King (1983b) karyotyped several individuals within G. australis s.l., all with the same 2N = 40a karyotype (but variable sex chromosomes) that by location can be assigned to G. australis s.s., G. gemina sp.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The gekkonid lizards in the genus Gehyra from Australia show conservative body form, variable appearance and have been a test case for implementing new methods to document species diversity (King, 1979(King, , 1982Sistrom, Donnellan & Hutchinson, 2013;Sistrom et al, 2014;Ashman et al, 2018;Kealley et al, 2018;Moritz et al, 2018;summarised in Doughty et al, 2018a). The various genetic techniques have led to increasingly finer resolution of phylogenetic structure, and have recently resulted in major revisions of Gehyra species-groups from the Australian arid zone and the Australian Monsoonal Tropics (AMT) such that the number of recognised species has nearly doubled from 22 to 43 Doughty et al, 2018aDoughty et al, , 2018bKealley et al, 2018).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Crypsis and convergence: integrative taxonomic revision of the Gehyra australis group (Squamata: Gekkonidae) from northern Australia

Oliver

Prasetya

Tedeschi

et al. 2020

PeerJ

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For over two decades, assessments of geographic variation in mtDNA and small numbers of nuclear loci have revealed morphologically similar, but genetically divergent, intraspecific lineages in lizards from around the world. Subsequent morphological analyses often find subtle corresponding diagnostic characters to support the distinctiveness of lineages, but occasionally do not. In recent years it has become increasingly possible to survey geographic variation by sequencing thousands of loci, enabling more rigorous assessment of species boundaries across morphologically similar lineages. Here we take this approach, adding new, geographically extensive SNP data to existing mtDNA and exon capture datasets for the Gehyra australis and G. koira species complexes of gecko from northern Australia. The combination of exon-based phylogenetics with dense spatial sampling of mitochondrial DNA sequencing, SNP-based tests for introgression at lineage boundaries and newly-collected morphological evidence supports the recognition of nine species, six of which are newly described here. Detection of discrete genetic clusters using new SNP data was especially convincing where candidate taxa were continuously sampled across their distributions up to and across geographic boundaries with analyses revealing no admixture. Some species defined herein appear to be truly cryptic, showing little, if any, diagnostic morphological variation. As these SNP-based approaches are progressively applied, and with all due conservatism, we can expect to see a substantial improvement in our ability to delineate and name cryptic species, especially in taxa for which previous approaches have struggled to resolve taxonomic boundaries.

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“…Data on microhabitat use (arboreal; fossorial; saxicolous; terrestrial; or variable, for species that occupied more than one microhabitat type) were sourced from a comprehensive global database (Meiri, 2018). For newly described species (e.g., Gehyra ), the relevant information was sourced from published literature and the Western Australia Museum records, where possible (Doughty et al., 2018). Distributional data were collated as part of the 2017 IUCN Red List assessment of all Australian squamates (Chapple et al., 2019; Tingley et al., 2019) and used to estimate median values of three climate variables across each species’ geographical range: aridity (CGIAR‐CSI Global‐Aridity Database v2; Zomer et al., 2007, 2008), and mean annual temperature and temperature seasonality (standard deviation) from the WorldClim Database v2 (Fick & Hijmans, 2017).…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Environmental correlates of morphological diversity in Australian geckos

Norris

Tingley

Meiri

et al. 2021

Global Ecol. Biogeogr.

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Aim Climatic variation has long been regarded as a primary source of morphological variation. However, there is mixed support for the adherence of reptiles to ecogeographical hypotheses, such as Bergmann’s rule (body size decreases with temperature) and Allen’s rule (limb length increases with temperature). We quantified body and limb morphology among the diverse Australian gecko fauna (4 families, 30 genera, 226 of the 231 described species) to investigate environmental correlates of morphological variation in this radiation. Location Australia. Major taxa studied Geckos (Squamata: Gekkota; the families Gekkonidae, Carphodactylidae, Diplodactylidae and Pygopodidae). Methods We measured 20 external features of ethanol‐preserved museum specimens. We investigated whether principal component axes of morphology were correlated with three key environmental variables, and the microhabitat occupied by each species. Results Morphology varied greatly among Australian gecko families and genera, although there was a strong phylogenetic signal in morphology. After accounting for phylogeny, morphology was correlated with a species’ microhabitat use. Saxicolous species and species with variable microhabitat requirements (i.e., generalists) had larger body dimensions than terrestrial species. Saxicolous species also had longer proportional forelimbs and hindlimbs than terrestrial species. Main conclusions Our results highlight the importance of phylogeny and microhabitat use in shaping the morphology of Australian geckos. We find little evidence that Australian geckos adhere to Bergmann’s rule or Allen’s rule, suggesting that these ecogeographical hypotheses provide limited insight into the adaptive potential of lizard species to altered environmental conditions.

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Spots before the eyes: revision of the saxicoline geckos of the Gehyra punctata (Squamata: Gekkonidae) species complex in the Pilbara region of Western Australia

Cited by 7 publications

References 36 publications

Contrasting scales of local persistence between monsoonal and arid biomes in closely related, low‐dispersal vertebrates

Contrasting scales of local persistence between monsoonal and arid biomes in closely related, low‐dispersal vertebrates

Crypsis and convergence: integrative taxonomic revision of the Gehyra australis group (Squamata: Gekkonidae) from northern Australia

Environmental correlates of morphological diversity in Australian geckos

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