Two new species of leaf-tailed geckos (Uroplatus) from the Tsaratanana mountain massif in northern Madagascar

Abstract

The Tsaratanana Massif is the highest mountain massif of Madagascar and is characterized by a high species-level endemism of its biota. Here we describe two new small-sized species of leaf-tailed geckos of the Uroplatus ebenaui group from this region. Named in a preliminary way as confirmed candidate species Uroplatus ebenaui [Ca1] and [Ca2] in previous studies, we here provide detailed data on their molecular and morphological differentiation and describe them as Uroplatus fotsivava sp. nov. and Uroplatus kelirambo sp. nov. Their closest relatives are U. fiera and U. finiavana, respectively, as revealed by a phylogeny based on DNA sequences of four mitochondrial genes. However, integration of various lines of evidence confirms that the new species are independent evolutionary lineages, differing from other Uroplatus by high mitochondrial divergences, lack of haplotype sharing in the nuclear CMOS gene, and shape and relative size of the tail. While U. fotsivava is known from multiple sites at elevations between 1100-1538 m above sea level, U. kelirambo was found only at high elevations between 2000-2200 m a.s.l.; it therefore is the only known forest-dwelling nocturnal gecko reaching such high elevations in Madagascar, and might be narrowly endemic to montane forests of the Tsaratanana Massif.

First Insights on the Karyotype Diversification of the Endemic Malagasy Leaf-Toed Geckos (Squamata: Gekkonidae: Uroplatus)

“…Considering the pairwise distance threshold usually used for species identification in squamates for the 12S (3–4%) see e.g., [ 30 , 31 ], it is therefore possible that the samples GA 328 and GA 329 represent an undescribed lineage of Uroplatus , but more focused morphological and molecular analyses employing a combination of mitochondrial and nuclear markers should be performed to better assess the taxonomic placement of these samples. This result is not surprising considering the significant number of newly described Uroplatus species in the last years and the molecular identification of different undescribed lineages (e.g., [ 20 , 23 ]).…”

“…A fragment of about 450 bp of the mitochondrial 12S rRNA gene was amplified using the primer pair 12Sa 5′-AAACTGGGATTAGATACCCCACTAT−3′ and 12Sb 5′-GAGGGTGAGGGCGGTG-TGT−3′ [ 28 ]. This marker was chosen considering its wide use on Uroplatus geckos and the number of available sequences in public repositories [ 13 , 15 , 16 , 17 , 18 , 19 , 20 , 21 , 22 , 23 ].…”

“…For taxonomic attribution, the newly determined sequences were compared with available homologous traits deposited in GenBank which were used in previous phylogenetic and taxonomic studies on the genus Uroplatus (see e.g., [ 13 , 14 , 15 , 16 , 17 , 18 , 19 , 20 , 21 , 22 , 23 ].…”

“…This applies also to the geckos of the genus Uroplatus , which have been the subject of several morphological and molecular studies (see e.g., [ 13 , 14 , 15 , 16 , 17 , 18 , 19 , 20 , 21 , 22 , 23 ]), but only U . phantasticus (Boulenger, 1888) has a known karyotype, leaving the chromosome diversity of the genus completely unexplored.…”