Authors
Theo Busschau, Werner Conradie, Savel Daniels
Publication date
2019/6/29
Journal
Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution
Volume
139
Issue
(2019) 106549
Pages
1-15
Publisher
Elsevier
Description
We assess the phylogeographic structure and test several species delimitation methods in the forest-living Pondo flat-gecko, Afroedura pondolia, by sampling specimens from across the entire distribution in the Eastern Cape and KwaZulu-Natal provinces of South Africa. Phylogenetic results, using Bayesian inferences and maximum likelihood, from the combined mitochondrial and nuclear DNA sequence data derived from four partial loci (ND4, cyt b, PRLR and RAG1), suggest the presence of four geographically discrete clades, which represent candidate species. We applied four species-delimitation methods (ABGD, bGMYC, PTP and STACEY), the results of which were largely incongruent in the number of putative species nested within A. pondolia. Multivariate morphological analyses indicate statistically significant differences among the four candidate species, corroborating the presence of four cryptic species …
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