An ancient lineage of slow worms, genus Anguis (Squamata: Anguidae), survived in the Italian Peninsula

Gvoždík, Václav; Benkovský, Norbert; Crottini, Angelica; Bellati, Adriana; Moravec, Jiří; Romano, Antonio; Sacchi, Roberto; Jandzík, Dávid

doi:10.1016/j.ympev.2013.05.004

Cited by 44 publications

(63 citation statements)

References 47 publications

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“…This promising result indicates that at least for lacertids, if not for all lizards, the main issue decreasing recognisability may not be the lack of osteological traits in their skeletons, but the lack of our current osteological knowledge. As for anguids, this may hold true for the genus Anguis too, whose species have been mostly erected based on molecular data (Gvoždík et al, 2010(Gvoždík et al, , 2013, and for which no comparative osteological study has yet been published. Finally, despite not distinctly affecting the recognisability of extant European lizards, the fact that both European agamids and chamaeleonids can only be recognised at the family level will likely cause a loss in our knowledge of the past diversity of these two groups because of the absence of characters useful for distinguishing them from extant taxa that are currently extralimital, or from other species that have become extinct in the meantime.…”

Section: The Impact Of Recognisability On the Study Of Fossil Europeamentioning

confidence: 99%

Osteology, fossil record and palaeodiversity of the European lizards

et al. 2017

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Abstract. The capability of palaeontologists to identify fossil remains of a particular group of vertebrates strongly depends on the knowledge they have of its comparative osteology and on the actual presence of diagnostic differences among the considered taxa. This could have a relevant influence on the study of palaeodiversity, since a low recognisability causes a loss of data when trying to reconstruct the history of taxa that lived on Earth in the past. Currently, more than 6000 extant species of lizards and worm lizards are known, and new ones continue to be discovered, mainly based on molecular data. But are we able to recognise this high diversity using osteology? As far as European taxa are concerned, the osteological recognisability of non-snake squamates is very low: only 31% of the extant European taxa can be identified based on their skeletal morphology. This is balanced partially by the fact that most recognisable taxa have been actually recognised in the fossil record, suggesting that the lost data are mainly due to the scarce knowledge of the comparative osteology of these reptiles and less influenced by other biases, such as taphonomic or collection biases. In this context, specimen-level phylogenetic analysis has proved to be a useful tool to identify diagnostic combinations of osteological features, at least for lacertid species, as evidenced by a case study focused on the genus Lacerta.

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Section: The Impact Of Recognisability On the Study Of Fossil Europeamentioning

confidence: 99%

Osteology, fossil record and palaeodiversity of the European lizards

et al. 2017

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“…Until recently, this genus included two morphologically described species: A. cephallonica Werner, 1894 and A. fragilis Linnaeus, 1758 (Arnold and Ovenden, 2002). Recent analyses of genetic markers (mitochondrial and nuclear) in combination with morphological data, revealed four cryptic species within A. fragilis (Gvozdik et al, 2010(Gvozdik et al, , 2013. These species, which seem to present a parapatric distribution with few narrow contact zones and even hybridization zones (Szabo and Vörös, 2014), are A. colchica (Nordmann, 1840), A./rag¿/íí Linnaeus, 1758, A. graeca Bedriaga, 1881and A. veronensis Pollini, 1818(Gvozdili et al, 2013.…”

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“…The morphological characters used so far have revealed statistically significant differences between some species [e.g. A. fragilis and A. colchica (Dely, 1981) or A. veronensis and A. frag His (Gvozdik et al, 2013)], but their variation broadly overlaps. However, A. cephallonica was considered to be clearly and unambiguously different from all other slow worm species (Dely, 1981;Grillitsch and Cabela, 1990;Valakos et al, 2008;Gvozdik et al, 2013).…”

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Phylogeography and genetic structure of the slow worms Anguis cephallonica and Anguis graeca (Squamata: Anguidae) from the southern Balkan Peninsula

2014

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Two slow worm species are distributed at the southernmost part of the Balkan Peninsula: Anguis cephallonica, an endemic of the Peloponnese and the islands Zakynthos, Ithaki and Kephallonia, and A. graeca. Here, we investigate the intraspecific genetic diversity of A. cephallonica from the Peloponnese and Kephallonia and analyse A. graeca, from the northern Peloponnese, where it is found in sympatry with A. cephallonica. MtDNA and nDNA phylogenetic analyses confirm the genetic similarity of Peloponnesian and Kephallonian populations of A. cephallonica and reveal significant mtDNA genetic variation within it, probably related to the occurrence of multiple subrefugia in the Peloponnese. Peloponnesian A. graeca populations are genetically similar to non-Peloponnesian conspecifics implying recent dispersal to the Peloponnese. In contrast to the genetic markers, morphological characteristics (such as the number of mid-body scale-rows) failed to distinguish between Peloponnesian A. cephallonica and A. graeca. Although the former species is believed to be well-differentiated from its congeneric taxa, a thorough morphological study is needed.

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“…To ascertain the taxonomic position and phylogenetic relationship of different slow worm Gvozdik et al (2010Gvozdik et al ( , 2013 surveyed genetic variation of various Anguis populations using both mitochondrial and nuclear markers. They found pronounced divergences in the mitochondrial lineages, with five distinct clades.…”

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Distribution and hybridization of Anguis fragilis and A. colchica in Hungary

Szabó¹,

Vörös

2014

Amphib Reptilia

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Slow worms (Anguis spp.) are widely distributed in Europe. Based on pronounced divergences in molecular markers the subspecies of the slow worm, Anguis fragilis, have been recently elevated to species level. In Hungary both A. fragilis and A. colchica are present in the mountainous areas with their range being separated by the Danube River with potential contact zones in the Danube valley. Based on morphology, hybridization of the two taxa has been described earlier from the Budai and Pilis Mountains. In order to reveal the exact distribution and confirm hybridization of Anguis taxa in Hungary we analyzed fragments of mitochondrial (ND2) and nuclear (Ragl) genes in 36 specimens from eight regions of Hungary and adjacent countries. The results confirmed the previously known distribution pattem with an east-west split along the Danube River and supported the morphological findings about hybridization in the Budai and Pilis Mountains.

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An ancient lineage of slow worms, genus Anguis (Squamata: Anguidae), survived in the Italian Peninsula

Cited by 44 publications

References 47 publications

Osteology, fossil record and palaeodiversity of the European lizards

Osteology, fossil record and palaeodiversity of the European lizards

Phylogeography and genetic structure of the slow worms Anguis cephallonica and Anguis graeca (Squamata: Anguidae) from the southern Balkan Peninsula

Distribution and hybridization of Anguis fragilis and A. colchica in Hungary

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