Thursday, 20 August 2020

A New Insular Species of the Cyrtodactylus intermedius

 [Herpetology • 2020] Cyrtodactylus kohrongensis • A New Insular Species of the Cyrtodactylus intermedius (Squamata: Gekkonidae) Group from Cambodia with A Discussion of Habitat Preference and Ecomorphology


Cyrtodactylus kohrongensis 
Grismer, Onn, Oaks, Neang, Sokun, Murdoch, Stuart & Grismer, 2020


Abstract
An integrative taxonomic analysis based on mitochondrial and morphological data recovered the population of Cyrtodactylus on Koh Rong Island, Preah Sihanouk Province, Cambodiaa as an endemic insular species belonging to the Cyrtodactylus intermedius group. This brings the number of species in the C. intermedius group to at least 10 and the number of species in Cambodia to at least seven. Species of this relatively small group vary widely in habitat preference, occurring in general, terrestrial, karstic, or granitic habitats. Ancestral character state mapping recovered a general habitat preference as the ancestral condition from which all others independently evolved even though this did not covary with morphology. The description of another new species of reptile from Cambodia continues to underscore the potentially significant amount of unrealized biodiversity in Indochina and Southeast Asia and the continued need for field surveys in unexplored or poorly explored areas.

Keywords: Reptilia, gecko, Indochina, integrative taxonomy, Southeast Asia, systematics

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