news on Iberian Podarcis "hispanicus" and Iberolacerta

Portugal, Spain, Andorra

news on Iberian Podarcis "hispanicus" and Iberolacerta

Postby Mario Schweiger » Tue May 06, 2014 7:28 am

Today a paper has been published:

PHILIPPE GENIEZ, PAULO SÁ-SOUSA, CLAUDE P. GUILLAUME, ALEXANDRE CLUCHIER & PIERRE-ANDRÉ CROCHET.
Systematics of the Podarcis hispanicus complex (Sauria, Lacertidae) III: valid nomina of the western and central Iberian forms.
Zootaxa 3794 (1): 001–051

Abstract:
Recent genetic works have suggested that the Iberian wall lizard Podarcis hispanicus (Steindachner, 1870) sensu lato is a species complex. Several forms have already been elevated to species rank and linked to available nomina, but at least three still have to be formally named, including the western Iberian forms currently designated as Podarcis hispanicus “type 1A”, “type 1B” and “type 2”. The aim of the present work is to assign a valid nomen to these taxa. Using multivariate analyses, we first checked that the morphological differences reported in Portugal between type 1 and type 2 are maintained over their distribution range. We then investigated phenotypic differentiation between type 1A and type 1B, which were found to be so similar that identification based on phenotype is currently not advisable. We propose to treat type 1 and type 2 as distinct species because of their level of genetic and phenotypic divergence, large area of distribution and ample evidence for reduced or absent introgression in contact zones. We maintain type 1A and 1B as subspecies for the time being, pending further analyses of their contact zone. The valid nomen for “Podarcis hispanica type 1 (sensu lato)” is Lacerta muralis guadarramae Boscá, 1916 which becomes Podarcis guadarramae (Boscá, 1916). Lineage type 1A is here described as a new taxon: P. guadarramae lusitanicus ssp. nov., inhabiting northern Portugal and northwestern Spain. The type 1B lineage corresponds to the nominotypical subspecies that inhabits Spain, mostly the Central Iberian Mountains. We were unable to locate an available nomen for “Podarcis hispanica type 2”, which is here described as Podarcis virescens sp. nov. This species is widely distributed in the plains and plateaus of central and parts of south-western Spain as well as central and southern Portugal.
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Re: news on Iberian Podarcis "hispanicus"

Postby miguel santos » Tue May 06, 2014 9:58 am

I think this was an article waiting to happen. I am glad that they reseached over the entire range to be sure of the uniformity of the DNA. As it happens I am now in Portugal and it is clear (from an apearance point of view) that types 1 and 2 are quite distinct. And the fact that the contact zone is always so narrow always surprised me. I think though that in serra da Estrela and S. Mamede both species manage to co-exist because of the diversity of habitat that the mountain range provides.
But this is only the comment of a local amatour. :)
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Re: news on Iberian Podarcis "hispanicus"

Postby Peter Oefinger » Tue May 06, 2014 11:03 am

Hm, light and shadow: the type 1 description is ok for me but I'm not sure if the description of type 2 will always be helpful in the field. And the difficult questions in comparison with other species remain open...
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Re: news on Iberian Podarcis "hispanicus"

Postby miguel santos » Tue May 06, 2014 1:09 pm

Yes Peter, it is a good remark. In Spain I find it difficult with the Vaucheri. The Carbonelli is mosewhat smaller and is more terrestrial and preferes shaded places. But I wander if more changes will come in the future....
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Re: news on Iberian Podarcis "hispanicus"

Postby Peter Oefinger » Wed May 07, 2014 7:17 am

Right: the lowland forms of vaucheri look the same as type 2. Also type 2 vs liolepis can be difficult.
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Re: news on Iberian Podarcis "hispanicus"

Postby Mario Schweiger » Wed May 07, 2014 7:38 am

Peter Oefinger wrote:Right: the lowland forms of vaucheri look the same as type 2.


No idea on Iberian vaucheri :lol:
But in Morocco, imho, there is no difference between lowland and high altidtude (up to 2400 m asl) populations.

PodVauM1-NMeknes.jpg
Podarcis vaucheri, male; north of Meknes

PodVauM2-NMeknes.jpg
Podarcis vaucheri, male; north of Meknes

PodVauM-Oukaim.jpg
Podarcis vaucheri, male; near Oukaimaiden

PodVauM-TiziNTichka.jpg
Podarcis vaucheri, male; Tizi-n-Tichka

PodVauW-TiziNTichka.jpg
Podarcis vaucheri, female; Tizi-n-Tichka
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Re: news on Iberian Podarcis "hispanicus"

Postby Peter Oefinger » Wed May 07, 2014 7:53 am

Yes Mario: these show typical vaucheri coloration. The samecoloration occurs in the Los Alcornocales NP.
But here are some others:
v1.jpg
Donana

v4.jpg
Donana

v3.jpg
Cadiz

v2.jpg
Cadiz

And in the lacerta.de picture databse it becomes even worse ;)
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Re: news on Iberian Podarcis "hispanicus"

Postby miguel santos » Wed May 07, 2014 10:00 am

I ve been to Gibraltar last year and I saw many deep green Vaucheri. Those can not be mistaken at all. InCeuta I saw types like the first Mario posted before (yellow/green). As for Donana I never saw any podarcis there. I gess that carbonelli might be difficult difficult to distinguish from vaucheri, exept from habitat and behaviour.
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Re: news on Iberian Podarcis "hispanicus"

Postby Mario Schweiger » Mon May 19, 2014 4:39 pm

It goes on ;)
A new ssp. of Iberolacerta monticola!

Iberolacerta m. astur
See:
ARRIBAS, O.J., P. GALÁN, N. REMÓN & H. NAVEIRA (2014): A new mountain lizard from Montes de León (NW Iberian Peninsula): Iberolacerta monticola astur ssp. nov. (Squamata: Lacertidae).- Zootaxa 3796 (2): 201–236

Abstract:
Iberolacerta populations from the Northern Montes de León (NML) were studied by means of external morphology (scalation and biometry), osteology and genetics (mtDNA and microsatellites), searching for their homogeneity (“intrazonal analysis”) and, once verified, comparing them with Iberolacerta monticola s. str. (from Central Cantabrian Mountains) and I. galani (from Southern Montes de León) (“extrazonal analysis”) from neighboring areas. Our “intrazonal analysis” revealed discordances between the different approaches, especially the patterns of variation of nuclear microsatellites (congruent with external morphology) and mtDNA, namely a very low nuclear differentiation between relatively highly differentiated mtDNA lineages. The morphological approach was unable to discriminate any of the populations as significantly different from the others in the NML. Mitochondrial DNA revealed a haplotype lineage closely related to I. galani (MNL-II in our text) in some specimens of Sierra de Villabandín and Suspirón, but these populations are morphologically indistinguishable from the main part of the other populations that belong to lineage NML-I, phylogenetically closer to I. monticola. After a separation from I. monticola ca. 1.8 Mya, the populations in this geographic region must have suffered at least two different waves of gene flow from I. galani, the second one not much later than 0.5 Mya. Microsatellite results indicate that all the NML populations are genetically similar in terms of their nuclear genomes, independently of their mitochondrial differentiation (NML-I vs. NML-II haplotype groups). Since all the morphological and microsatellite evidences point towards the fact that, independently of the mitochondrial haplotypes that they bear (NML-I or NML-II), there is only one taxon in the area, we describe it as: Iberolacerta monticola astur ssp. nov. Concerning the relationships of I. m. astur ssp. nov. with I. monticola s. str. and I. galani (“extrazonal analysis”), in the female analyses the new taxon centroid is closer to I. monticola s. str. than to I. galani (more similarity with I. monticola s. str.), whereas in the male analyses the relationship is just the contrary (closer to I. galani, paralleling the direction of the hypothesized past hybridization). Moreover, in both sexes’ ANOVA, I. m. astur ssp. nov. results more similar (less P<0.05 differences) to I. galani than to I. monticola s. str. Osteologically, I. m. astur ssp. nov. is slightly more similar to I. monticola s. str. than to I. galani, especially in the squamosal bone, which is regularly arched (primitive shape). Genetically, as indicated above, the NML populations can be subdivided in two groups according to their mitochondrial DNA, namely NML-I (bearing clearly differentiated haplotypes, phylogenetically closer to I. monticola) and NML-II (whose haplotypes could have been mistaken for those of an I. galani population). This mitochondrial subdivision has at most a subtle nuclear correlate, however. According to the nuclear microsatellite markers, all the NML populations belong to a single group (I. m. astur ssp. nov.), which would be more similar to I. galani than to I monticola, with NML-II populations lying closer to I. galani than those from the NML-I group and, correspondingly, more distant from I. monticola. The discordant phylogenetic signal of mitochondrial and nuclear markers is discussed in terms of past introgression events and sex-biases in phylopatry and dispersion in these species. Iberolacerta monticola astur ssp. nov., inhabits the Northern Montes de León (Sierra de Gistreo sensu latissimo): Gistredo, Catoute, Tambarón, Nevadín, Villabandín (or Macizo del Alto de la Cañada), Arcos del Agua (or Fernán Pérez), Tiendas and Suspirón, mainly in quartzite and slate rock substrates. Its current distribution, cornered in the NW of the Northern part of the Montes de León, suggests a possible competitive exclusion between this taxon and I. galani, as the galani haplotypes (NML-II) appear cornered in the most harsh and continental areas, speaking also about a, even in the past, very limited presence of this species in the area that probably was soon absorbed by I. m. astur ssp. nov. (with NML-Concluding, it seems that the current main distribution area of I. m. astur ssp. nov. (especially the typical NML-I) gravitates around what was the divisory between watersheds in the past, later shifted to the East during the
Quaternary. Eastern known limits of I. m. astur ssp. nov. do not pass away from Collado de Campo Lamoso (1500 m), which today is perfectly suitable for the species, but during the Pliocene and the main part of the Pleistocene, constituted a barrier across which the two northern immediate valleys drained to the southern slopes. The West-East continuity of this massif during the end of the Miocene was broken by changes in the drainage across this pass in the Pliocene (geological datation uncertain). Although nowadays the pass to the East (to the Filera Massif, 1879 m) is possible for Iberolacerta, the prospections in these drier limestone areas had been unfruitful. In the north of these Sierras, the species can reach up to Cascaros peak (1854 m), but this extreme has to be confirmed.
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Re: news on Iberian Podarcis "hispanicus" and Iberolacerta

Postby Peter Oefinger » Mon May 19, 2014 5:14 pm

Haha! Thank god they didn't describe it as a new species...
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