Historical biogeography, phylogenetic relationships and intraspecific diversity of agamid lizards in the Central Asian deserts of Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan

The complete mitochondrial genome of secret toad-headed agama,Phrynocephalus mystaceus(Reptilia, Squamata, Agamidae)

“…Ananjeva (1986) considered this species as belonging to the monotypic genus Megalochilus Eochwald, 1831. Guo & Wang (2007) considered it as the sister taxon of all other Phrynocephalus species, in accordance with that of Arnold (1999 appear to support the view that P. mystaceus is nested within Phrynocepahlus (Dunayev et al, 2007;Melville et al, 2009). We expected the complete mitogenome sequence of the P. mystaceus could contribute to a better solution of its phylogenetic position within toad-headed agamids from a mitogenomic point of view.…”

The complete mitochondrial genome of the Yarkand toad-headed agama,Phrynocephalus axillaris(Reptilia, Squamata, Agamidae)

“…Highly adapted to sand dunes and desert environments, they are one of the major components of the central Asian desert fauna (Zhao and Alder 1993). Despite the progress that has been made in recent years for the systematics and diversification of certain Phrynocephalus groups, the large-scale pattern of their evolution in time and space remains open (Guo and Wang 2007;Melville et al 2009). In addition, none of these species has the complete mitochondrial genome reported.…”

Molecular Assessment and Taxonomic Status of the Rapid Racerunner (Eremias velox complex) with Particular Attention to the Populations in Northwestern China

“…Iranian clades at the basal position of the phylogenetic tree may imply that E. velox originated from the Iranian Plateau and invaded Central Asia as Rastegar-Pouyani et al (2012) suggested. If we take this scenario as a reliable explanation for the origin and evolution of E. velox, we consider the clade IV (E. v. roborowskii) as first split from entire Central Asian populations, resulting from the barrier effect of Tianshan Mountains with their dramatic uplift since Tertiary (Macey et al, 1999;Guo and Wang, 2007;Zhang et al, 2008;Melville et al, 2009;Solovyeva, 2013). Geographically, with the uplift of Tianshan Mountains, Turpan-Hami Depression and Dzungarian Basin were blocked from each other, resulting in a historical vicariant pattern and allopatric distribution between E. v. roborowskii and E. v. velox as well as E. v. caucasia.…”

“…The Dzungarian Gate is the main pass through the western ranges, leading to Lake Alaköl and Lake Balkhash in Kazakhstan. There are a number of taxa that have similar distribution pattern, including Phrynocephalus melanurus (Melville et al, 2009), P. heliocopus (Solovyeva et al, 2011), and Eremias arguta (Szczerbak, 2003). Traditionally, the subspecies category is used to diagnose geographically distinct populations that were thought to be in the early stages of speciation (Mayr, 1963;Mayr and Ashlock, 1991).…”