Testing the phylogenetic affinities of Southeast Asia’s rarest geckos: Flap-legged geckos (Luperosaurus), Flying geckos (Ptychozoon) and their relationship to the pan-Asian genus Gekko
Some of Southeast Asia’s most poorly known vertebrates include forest lizards that are rarely seen by field biologists. Arguably the most enigmatic of forest lizards from the Indo Australian archipelago are the Flap-legged geckos and the Flying geckos of the genera Luperosaurus and Ptychozoon. As...
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| Main Authors: | , , , |
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | en |
| Published: |
Elsevier Ltd
2012
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| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | http://ir.unimas.my/id/eprint/11694/1/Testing%20the%20phylogenetic%20affinities%20%28abstract%29.pdf http://ir.unimas.my/id/eprint/11694/ http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1055790312000723 |
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| Summary: | Some of Southeast Asia’s most poorly known vertebrates include forest lizards that are rarely seen by
field biologists. Arguably the most enigmatic of forest lizards from the Indo Australian archipelago are
the Flap-legged geckos and the Flying geckos of the genera Luperosaurus and Ptychozoon. As new species
have accumulated, several have been noted for their bizarre combination of morphological characteristics,
seemingly intermediate between these genera and the pan-Asian gecko genus Gekko. We used the
first multilocus phylogeny for these taxa to estimate their relationships, with particular attention to
the phylogenetic placement of the morphologically intermediate taxa Ptychozoon rhacophorus, Luperosaurus
iskandari, and L. gulat. Surprisingly, our results demonstrate that Luperosaurus is more closely related
to Lepidodactylus and Pseudogekko than it is to Gekko but that some species currently classified as Luperosaurus
are nested within Gekko. The Flying Gecko genus Ptychozoon is also nested within Gekko, suggesting
that higher-level taxonomic revision of the generic boundaries within Southeast Asian gekkonines
will be a priority for the immediate future |
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