Evolutionary history of the genus Tarentola (Gekkota: Phyllodactylidae) from the Mediterranean Basin, estimated using multilocus sequence data

Abstract

BackgroundThe pronounced morphological conservatism within Tarentola geckos contrasted with a high genetic variation in North Africa, has led to the hypothesis that this group could represent a cryptic species complex, a challenging system to study especially when trying to define distinct evolutionary entities and address biogeographic hypotheses. In the present work we have re-examined the phylogenetic and phylogeographic relationships between and within all Mediterranean species of Tarentola, placing the genealogies obtained into a temporal framework. In order to do this, we have investigated the sequence variation of two mitochondrial (12S rRNA and 16S rRNA), and four nuclear markers (ACM4, PDC, MC1R, and RAG2) for 384 individuals of all known Mediterranean Tarentola species, so that their evolutionary history could be assessed.ResultsOf all three generated genealogies (combined mtDNA, combined nDNA, and mtDNA+nDNA) we prefer the phylogenetic relationships obtained when all genetic markers are combined. A total of 133 individuals, and 2,901 bp of sequence length, were used in this analysis. The phylogeny obtained for Tarentola presents deep branches, with T. annularis, T. ephippiata and T. chazaliae occupying a basal position and splitting from the remaining species around 15.38 Mya. Tarentola boehmei is sister to all other Mediterranean species, from which it split around 11.38 Mya. There are also two other major groups: 1) the T. mauritanica complex present in North Africa and Europe; and 2) the clade formed by the T. fascicularis/deserti complex, T. neglecta and T. mindiae, occurring only in North Africa. The cladogenesis between these two groups occurred around 8.69 Mya, coincident with the late Miocene. Contrary to what was initially proposed, T. neglecta and T. mindiae are sister taxa to both T. fascicularis and T. deserti.ConclusionsAt least in the Iberian Peninsula and Northwest Africa, the lineages obtained have some geographic coherency, whilst the evolutionary history of the forms from Northeast Africa remains unclear, with a paraphyletic T. fascicularis with respect to T. deserti. The separation between the T. mauritanica complex and the clade formed by the T. fascicularis/deserti complex, T. neglecta and T. mindiae is coincident with the uplift of the Atlas Mountain chain, and the establishment of two distinct bioclimatic regions on each side of the barrier.

Ecophysiology Tracks Phylogeny and Meets Ecological Models in an Iberian Gecko

“…Resistance to dehydration is often associated with successful colonizers (e.g., Jeschke and Strayer 2008;Chown et al 2010;Kolbe et al 2010Kolbe et al , 2014. In contrast with these examples, the European lineage of T. mauritanica, which has been widely introduced across the Mediterranean basin (Rato et al 2010(Rato et al , 2012, has higher evaporative WL than the Iberian lineage regardless of body size. However, it must be taken into account that the recent human-mediated expansion of T. mauritanica has been directed toward northern and, hence, more humid areas than the central Iberian Peninsula.…”

“…Molecular studies have gradually uncovered the extreme evolutionary diversity within T. mauritanica, with six identified lineages to date, suggesting that this taxon is, in fact, a complex of several species deserving specific status (Harris et al 2004a(Harris et al , 2004bPerera and Harris 2008;Rato et al 2010Rato et al , 2012. In the Iberian Peninsula, a temperate region of southern Europe that encompasses a high diversity of landscapes and climate regimes (Sillero et al 2009), two distinct mitochondrial lineages of the complex with parapatric distribution are found: an endemic clade distributed in central and southwestern Iberia (Perera and Harris 2008), hereafter called the Iberian clade, and the European clade, which occurs along the Iberian coastline (Rato et al 2012). This latter clade has a widespread distribution across southern Europe (from the Iberian Peninsula to Greece), including many Mediterranean islands, as a result of multiple introductions.…”

Nuclear and mitochondrial markers reveal the existence of several geographically concordant lineages within a Sahelian gecko species, Ptyodactylus ragazzii

“…Barata, Carranza and Harris, 2012). Geckos in general seem to be a good example of this, as studies of Tarentola (Rato, Carranza and Harris, 2012) and Quedenfeldtia indicated possible cryptic species. Other species such as Saurodactylus brosseti also present extremely high mtDNA variability (Rato and Harris, 2008), although the lack of clear geographical structure of genetic variation precludes conclusions about cryptic species.…”

“…Zangad, Cimmaruta and Nascetti, 2006;Recuero et al, 2007). This is particularly true for geckos from the region; of studies from Morocco for example, all speeies analysed have included deeply divergent mtDNA lineages, at a level that could be considered cryptic species (Perera and Harris, 2010; Rato, Carranza and Harris, 2012).…”

Cryptic variation in the Moroccan high altitude lizardAtlantolacerta andreanskyi(Squamata: Lacertidae)

“…In North Africa, new cryptic diversity has recently been described in several taxa such as plants (Abdelaziz et al 2011), spiders (Duncan et al 2010), mammals (Ben Faleh et al 2012) and reptiles Rato et al 2012). The diverse geographical and geological features and the variety of climates exert different selective pressures that have promoted speciation processes in the region, and some areas, such as the Atlas Mountains, are especially interesting.…”