Cryptic Speciation Patterns in Iranian Rock Lizards Uncovered by Integrative Taxonomy

While traditionally species recognition has been based solely on morphological differences either typological or quantitative, several newly developed methods can be used for a more objective and integrative approach on species delimitation. This may be especially relevant when dealing with cryptic...

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Main Authors:	Ahmadzadeh, Faraham, Flecks, Morris, Carretero, Miguel A., Mozaffari, Omid, Böhme, Wolfgang, Harris, D. James, Freitas, Susana, Rödder, Dennis
Format:	Online
Language:	English
Published:	Public Library of Science 2013
Online Access:	https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3851173/

id	pubmed-3851173
recordtype	oai_dc
spelling	pubmed-38511732013-12-09 Cryptic Speciation Patterns in Iranian Rock Lizards Uncovered by Integrative Taxonomy Ahmadzadeh, Faraham Flecks, Morris Carretero, Miguel A. Mozaffari, Omid Böhme, Wolfgang Harris, D. James Freitas, Susana Rödder, Dennis Research Article While traditionally species recognition has been based solely on morphological differences either typological or quantitative, several newly developed methods can be used for a more objective and integrative approach on species delimitation. This may be especially relevant when dealing with cryptic species or species complexes, where high overall resemblance between species is coupled with comparatively high morphological variation within populations. Rock lizards, genus Darevskia, are such an example, as many of its members offer few diagnostic morphological features. Herein, we use a combination of genetic, morphological and ecological criteria to delimit cryptic species within two species complexes, D. chlorogaster and D. defilippii, both distributed in northern Iran. Our analyses are based on molecular information from two nuclear and two mitochondrial genes, morphological data (15 morphometric, 16 meristic and four categorical characters) and eleven newly calculated spatial environmental predictors. The phylogeny inferred for Darevskia confirmed monophyly of each species complex, with each of them comprising several highly divergent clades, especially when compared to other congeners. We identified seven candidate species within each complex, of which three and four species were supported by Bayesian species delimitation within D. chlorogaster and D. defilippii, respectively. Trained with genetically determined clades, Ecological Niche Modeling provided additional support for these cryptic species. Especially those within the D. defilippii-complex exhibit well-differentiated niches. Due to overall morphological resemblance, in a first approach PCA with mixed variables only showed the separation between the two complexes. However, MANCOVA and subsequent Discriminant Analysis performed separately for both complexes allowed for distinction of the species when sample size was large enough, namely within the D. chlorogaster-complex. In conclusion, the results support four new species, which are described herein. Public Library of Science 2013-12-04 /pmc/articles/PMC3851173/ /pubmed/24324611 http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0080563 Text en © 2013 Ahmadzadeh et al http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are properly credited.
repository_type	Open Access Journal
institution_category	Foreign Institution
institution	US National Center for Biotechnology Information
building	NCBI PubMed
collection	Online Access
language	English
format	Online
author	Ahmadzadeh, Faraham Flecks, Morris Carretero, Miguel A. Mozaffari, Omid Böhme, Wolfgang Harris, D. James Freitas, Susana Rödder, Dennis
spellingShingle	Ahmadzadeh, Faraham Flecks, Morris Carretero, Miguel A. Mozaffari, Omid Böhme, Wolfgang Harris, D. James Freitas, Susana Rödder, Dennis Cryptic Speciation Patterns in Iranian Rock Lizards Uncovered by Integrative Taxonomy
author_facet	Ahmadzadeh, Faraham Flecks, Morris Carretero, Miguel A. Mozaffari, Omid Böhme, Wolfgang Harris, D. James Freitas, Susana Rödder, Dennis
author_sort	Ahmadzadeh, Faraham
title	Cryptic Speciation Patterns in Iranian Rock Lizards Uncovered by Integrative Taxonomy
title_short	Cryptic Speciation Patterns in Iranian Rock Lizards Uncovered by Integrative Taxonomy
title_full	Cryptic Speciation Patterns in Iranian Rock Lizards Uncovered by Integrative Taxonomy
title_fullStr	Cryptic Speciation Patterns in Iranian Rock Lizards Uncovered by Integrative Taxonomy
title_full_unstemmed	Cryptic Speciation Patterns in Iranian Rock Lizards Uncovered by Integrative Taxonomy
title_sort	cryptic speciation patterns in iranian rock lizards uncovered by integrative taxonomy
description	While traditionally species recognition has been based solely on morphological differences either typological or quantitative, several newly developed methods can be used for a more objective and integrative approach on species delimitation. This may be especially relevant when dealing with cryptic species or species complexes, where high overall resemblance between species is coupled with comparatively high morphological variation within populations. Rock lizards, genus Darevskia, are such an example, as many of its members offer few diagnostic morphological features. Herein, we use a combination of genetic, morphological and ecological criteria to delimit cryptic species within two species complexes, D. chlorogaster and D. defilippii, both distributed in northern Iran. Our analyses are based on molecular information from two nuclear and two mitochondrial genes, morphological data (15 morphometric, 16 meristic and four categorical characters) and eleven newly calculated spatial environmental predictors. The phylogeny inferred for Darevskia confirmed monophyly of each species complex, with each of them comprising several highly divergent clades, especially when compared to other congeners. We identified seven candidate species within each complex, of which three and four species were supported by Bayesian species delimitation within D. chlorogaster and D. defilippii, respectively. Trained with genetically determined clades, Ecological Niche Modeling provided additional support for these cryptic species. Especially those within the D. defilippii-complex exhibit well-differentiated niches. Due to overall morphological resemblance, in a first approach PCA with mixed variables only showed the separation between the two complexes. However, MANCOVA and subsequent Discriminant Analysis performed separately for both complexes allowed for distinction of the species when sample size was large enough, namely within the D. chlorogaster-complex. In conclusion, the results support four new species, which are described herein.
publisher	Public Library of Science
publishDate	2013
url	https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3851173/
_version_	1612034536162459648

Cryptic Speciation Patterns in Iranian Rock Lizards Uncovered by Integrative Taxonomy

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