﻿A remarkable new species of gecko (Squamata: Gekkonidae: Hemidactylus) from scrublands at the southern tip of India

Khandekar, Akshay; Thackeray, Tejas; Mariappan, Rameshwaran; Gangalmale, Satpal; Waghe, Vivek; Pawar, Swapnil; Agarwal, Ishan

doi:10.3897/vz.73.e101871

Cited by 2 publications

References 29 publications

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Globetrotting geckos: Historical biogeography suggests an Indian origin and “Out-Of-India” dispersal for the cosmopolitanHemidactylusgeckos

Agashe,

Biswas,

Karanth

2024

Preprint

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Aim – Following the breakup of Gondwana dispersal events both into and out of India have influenced the biotic assembly of the surrounding landmasses. The cosmopolitan Hemidactylus presents an intriguing group to examine these instances, particularly given its sister relationship with the endemic Dravidogecko found in India′s Western Ghats. Despite earlier theories of Afro–Arabian or Southeast Asian origins for Hemidactylus, its deep divergence from Dravidogecko (~57 million years ago) suggests a potential Indian origin, thus contradicting an ″Into–India″ scenario proposed for the current Indian tetrapod groups. We thus aim to resolve the origins and shed light on the inter–continental dispersals in Hemidactylus by reconstructing its biogeographic history. Location – Worldwide Taxon – Hemidactylus Geckos Methods – We use six nuclear genes to reconstruct a reduced representation backbone phylogeny of Hemidactylus using likelihood, Bayesian, and coalescent based methods. We further assemble a timetree using a concatenated dataset of nuclear and mitochondrial markers from 132 of the 192 Hemidactylus species by constraining the topology with the backbone phylogeny and secondary calibrations. We use this chronogram to reconstruct ancestral geographic ranges using BioGeoBEARS, employing a time-stratified approach in conjunction with plate tectonics information to explicitly test four hypotheses regarding the origin of the genus — An Indian origin, a Southeast Asian origin, a Saharo–Arabian origin, or an Afrotropical origin. Results – Our findings suggest that the ancestral lineage of Hemidactylus and Dravidogecko colonized the drifting Indian plate from Southeast Asia approximately 57 million years ago, eventually evolving into the two genera in the Indian subcontinent. Following this, Hemidactylus dispersed multiple times from India to Africa and Asia. Main Conclusion – This study proposes an Indian origin for these widely distributed geckos, representing a rare instance of an ″Out–of–India″ dispersal scenario observed in a non–Gondwanan squamate group. Additionally, our research underscores the significance of incorporating sister taxa in biogeographic analyses to avoid misinterpretations of ancestral ranges.

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Globetrotting geckos: Historical biogeography suggests an Indian origin and “Out-Of-India” dispersal for the cosmopolitanHemidactylusgeckos

Agashe,

Biswas,

Karanth

2024

Preprint

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Five new species of the Cnemaspis beddomei clade (Squamata: Gekkonidae) from high elevation, evergreen forests of the Southern Western Ghats, India

KHANDEKAR,

THACKERAY,

AGARWAL

2024

Zootaxa

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We describe five new species allied to Cnemaspis beddomei from the Southern Western Ghats, Tamil Nadu, India using morphological data and mitochondrial sequence divergence. The new species are members of the beddomei and anamudiensis subclades within the beddomei clade and are from boulder habitats in evergreen forests in Tenkasi (Cnemaspis tenkasiensis sp. nov.), and the Agamalai (C. agamalaiensis sp. nov.), Anaimalai (C. anaimalaiensis sp. nov. and C. valparaiensis sp. nov.) and Palani Hills (C. anuradhae sp. nov.). The new species can be distinguished from other members of the beddomei clade and each other by a combination of non-overlapping morphological characters including body size, distinct colouration in males, the number or arrangement of dorsal tubercles around the body and paravertebral tubercles, the number of ventral scales across midbody and longitudinal scales from mental to cloaca, tail tuberculation and arrangement of subcaudal scales, besides uncorrected pairwise ND2 and 16S sequence divergence of ≥ 5.4 % and ≥ 2.3 %. The beddomei clade is another example of extreme micro-endemism, all 23 known species are evergreen forest dwellers and are each known from just one or a few closely spaced localities, with three non-sister species known from within one kilometre straight-line distance of each other on the Valparai Plateau, Anaimalai Tiger Reserve. The beddomei subclade is distributed from Agasthyamalai to the Anaimalais while the anamudiensis subclade is restricted to the Anaimalai, Palani and Kannan Devan Hills.

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A remarkable new species of gecko (Squamata: Gekkonidae: Hemidactylus) from scrublands at the southern tip of India

Cited by 2 publications

References 29 publications

Globetrotting geckos: Historical biogeography suggests an Indian origin and “Out-Of-India” dispersal for the cosmopolitanHemidactylusgeckos

Globetrotting geckos: Historical biogeography suggests an Indian origin and “Out-Of-India” dispersal for the cosmopolitanHemidactylusgeckos

Five new species of the Cnemaspis beddomei clade (Squamata: Gekkonidae) from high elevation, evergreen forests of the Southern Western Ghats, India

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﻿A remarkable new species of gecko (Squamata: Gekkonidae: Hemidactylus) from scrublands at the southern tip of India

Cited by 2 publications

References 29 publications

Globetrotting geckos: Historical biogeography suggests an Indian origin and “Out-Of-India” dispersal for the cosmopolitanHemidactylusgeckos

Globetrotting geckos: Historical biogeography suggests an Indian origin and “Out-Of-India” dispersal for the cosmopolitanHemidactylusgeckos

Five new species of the Cnemaspis beddomei clade (Squamata: Gekkonidae) from high elevation, evergreen forests of the Southern Western Ghats, India

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Product

Resources

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A remarkable new species of gecko (Squamata: Gekkonidae: Hemidactylus) from scrublands at the southern tip of India