10.5061/DRYAD.48M70
Nielsen, Stuart V.
Marquette University
Oliver, Paul M.
Australian National University
Data from: Morphological and genetic evidence for a new karst specialist
lizard from New Guinea (Cyrtodactylus: Gekkonidae).
Dryad
dataset
2017
gecko
specialisation
Cyrtodactylus tanim
ecological diversity
Miocene to present
Morphometric analysis
2017-11-03T17:42:28Z
2017-11-03T17:42:28Z
en
https://doi.org/10.1098/rsos.170781
1559051 bytes
1
CC0 1.0 Universal (CC0 1.0) Public Domain Dedication
Exposed limestone karst landscapes, especially in the tropics, are often
home to distinctive and specialised biotas. Amongst vertebrates, a
particularly large number of karst-associated lizard taxa have been
described, but for the vast majority, evidence of specific adaptions to
karst is lacking. A number of studies, however, have provided evidence of
consistent morphological trends in lizards that utilise complex,
three-dimensional, saxicoline habitats such as those that typify karst
areas. Here we combine morphological and genetic data to test whether a
newly discovered gecko from an extremely rugged karst area in New Guinea
shows morphological trends matching these observed in other lizards
associated with complex rock habitats such as karst and caves. Consistent
with predictions, the new species’ head is flatter and narrower than
similar-sized relatives, and it has proportionally larger eyes and longer
limbs. These trends indicate this taxon represents the second documented
instance of karst specialisation in a New Guinean vertebrate, and suggest
morphological traits to test for evidence of specialised ecological
associations in the many karst-associated Cyrtodactylus taxa from
Southeast Asia.
Appendix S1. Genetic samplingGenbank details for all samples included in
analyses.Appendix S2 Material ExaminedMaterial examined for morphological
comparisons.Appendix S3. Limestone Cyrtodactylus sequence alignmentFinal
sequence alignment for species level phylogenetic analyses including four
genes.Appendix S3. Limestone Cyrt alignment.nexAppendix S4. Limestone
Cyrtodactylus BEAST input fileXml file used for to estimate number and
timing of shifts into limestone habitats by Cyrtodactylus species across
South-East Asia and Melanesia.Appendix S4. LimestoneCyrtv2.xmlAppendix S5.
Limestone Cyrtodactylus chrongramChronogram estimated using BEAST for 107
Cyrtodactylus taxa, including information on the number and timing of
shifts into karst habitats.Appendix S5. Limestone Cyrt.treAppendix S6.
Morphological dataRaw morphological data for seven species of medium sized
Melanesian Cyrtodactylus used in multivariate and univariate
comparisons.Appendix S6.Hill Cyrt.csvAppendix S7. Summary of PCA
ResultsEigenvalues, variance explained and component loadings for
Principle Components Analyses.Appendix S7. PCA Summary results.xlsx
New Guinea