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The genus Liolaemus is a widely distributed and very diverse natural group of lizards. The L. boulengeri group is characterized by the presence of a patch of enlarged scales on the posterior medial surface of the thigh. Liolaemus goetschi, which belongs to this group, was described by Müller and Hellmich in 1938 based on few specimens collected fro...
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... goetschi Müller and Hellmich, 1938 ( Fig. 1-3) Because the toponym "Laguna Playa" is not included in maps and records of the area and is unknown to local people, we conducted extensive surveys among rural people to locate the site. Finally, an elderly inhabitant of the nearest city (General Roca) informed us about the place and following his directions, we were able to find the ...
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In the highlands of the Andes, lizards must balance precisely the allocation of energy for growth and reproduction to ensure their survival. We studied the individuals’ age, growth rates, age at sexual maturity, and maximum life span of the viviparous lizard Phymaturus antofagastensis, endemic of cold and harsh environments at high altitudes in the...
We describe a new sexually monomorphic species of the "Phymaturus patagonicus" group, called Phymaturus katenke. It lives at about 800 m altitude on basaltic outcrops, in the central steppe of Chubut Province, Argentina. Here, we morphologically compared individuals of the studied population with the phylogenetically related and geographically neig...
The genus Liolaemus is a widely distributed and very diverse natural group of lizards. The L. boulengeri group is characterized by the presence of a patch of enlarged scales on the posterior medial surface of the thigh. Liolaemus goetschi, which belongs to this group, was described by Müller and Hellmich in 1938 based on few specimens collected fro...
The montane agamid lizard genus Oriocalotes is currently considered monotypic, represented by the species, O. paulus. The systematic status of this taxon has remained questionable since its initial descriptions in the mid-1800s. A detailed molecular and morphological study was carried out to assess the validity of this genus, and its systematic pos...
Citations
... To evaluate sexual dimorphism (SD) and interspecific variation among closely related Liolaemus species, we studied seven species currently included within the melanops complex: Liolaemus canqueli (Cei, 1975), L. casamiquelai (Avila et al., 2010), L. dumerili (Abdala et al., 2012b), L. goetschi (Müller & Hellmich, 1938), L. martorii (Abdala, 2003), L. melanops (Burmeister, 1888), and L. morenoi (Etheridge & Christie, 2003). Several incongruent taxonomic arrangements have been proposed for this species group since the 1970's (Cei, 1973; Nori et al., 2010; Abdala et al., 2012a Abdala et al., , 2012b). These works did not present detailed statistical analyses of shape and size with regard to intra vs interspecific variation. ...
By analysing size and shape separately, geometric morphometric methods (GM) are a powerful tool to evaluate morphological differences within and between taxa. In this work, we used GM to investigate whether lizards of the Liolaemus melanops complex differ in shape and size. Specifically, we analysed head shape and size variation to quantify intraspecific sexual dimorphism and interspecific differences. We found sexual dimorphism in six of the seven investigated species (L. canqueli, L. dumerili, L. goetschi, L. martorii, L. melanops and L. morenoi). Five species (L. canqueli, L. casamiquelai, L. martorii, L. melanops and L. morenoi) were distinct in shape and size, whereas L. goetschi and L. dumerili were indiscernible from each other. This work illustrates the value of GM to study morphological variation in lizards, suggesting that similar studies would be valuable for testing species boundaries in other groups of Liolaemus.
... 7 We did not consider the records IBA-UNC N°1142, 1076, 1075 CNP N°28, 33-4, 79 for Liolaemus goetschi cited by Scolaro (1976b) in Península Valdés. This taxon has been recently redescribed (Nori et al. 2010a) and the current known populations are restricted to the north of Río Negro province (Nori et al. 2010b, Pérez et al. 2011 approximately 430 km in a straight line from Península Valdés. The populations cited as L. goetschi in Scolaro (1976b) are considered as L. melanops since subsequent works showed molecular (Avila et al. 2006b) and morphological (Abdala 2007, Abdala et al. 2012b) differences between these two taxa. ...
... L. somuncurae, L. kriegi). Some citations for the region were considered here as taxonomic misidentifications, such as L. goetschi, which is restricted to northern Río Negro and southern La Pampa provinces (Nori et al. 2010a(Nori et al. , 2010b, whereas other records require new investigation and/or reexamination (e.g. L. wiegmannii, Etheridge 2000). ...
An accurate estimation of species and population geographic ranges is essential for species-focused studies and conservation and management plans. Knowledge of the geographic distributions of reptiles from Patagonian Argentina is in general limited and dispersed over manuscripts from a wide variety of topics. We completed an extensive review of reptile species of central Patagonia (Argentina) based on information from a wide variety of sources. We compiled and checked geographic distribution records from published literature and museum records, including extensive new data from the LJAMM-CNP (CENPAT-CONI-CET) herpetological collection. Our results show that there are 52 taxa recorded for this region and the highest species richness was seen in the families Liolaemidae and Dipsadidae with 31 and 10 species, respectively. The Patagónica was the phytogeographic province most diverse in species and Phymaturus was the genus of conservation concern most strongly associated with it. We present a detailed species list with geographical information, richness species, diversity analyses with comparisons across phytogeographical provinces, conservation status, taxonomic comments and distribution maps for all of these taxa.
... Nonetheless, the great majority of published works have proposed new species using a single approach (e.g., Kaliontzopoulou et al. 2005;Passos et al. 2009) and also, in some contributions there is only one type of data used (e.g., morphological) but without any hypothesis tested with statistical analyses (Avila 2003;Abdala & Lobo 2006;Scolaro & Tapari 2009), which may lead to incorrect results that, constantly generates systematic-taxonomic rearrangements and discussions (e.g., Liolaemus genus, Lobo et al. 2010). These permanent systematic changes and new proposals are very common in Liolaemus, a highly diverse genus for which many synonymizations and redescriptions have been published (Etheridge 1998;Quinteros & Lobo 2009;Nori et al. 2010). ...
... Our results for this type of basic statistical approach, showed that they do not contribute to detect clear differences between species of this complex. Many continuous and discrete variables had mean, SD, minimum and maximum values that clearly overlap, not showing differences among taxa, a pattern that is commonly found in other Liolaemus complexes (Abdala 2005;Scolaro & Cei 2006;Nori et al. 2010). Also it has been found that these continuous morphological variables have large latitudinal variation (Cruz et al. 2005;Pincheira-Donoso et al. 2007b, 2008, and present high phenotypic plasticity influenced by the environment (Cruz et al. 2005;Naya & Bozinovic 2006;Canale & Henry 2010). ...
It has long been considered sufficient a single method or only a descriptive diagnosis to propose a new species. Recently, many works have proposed new theoretical paradigms to consider multiple sources of evidence to support the hypothesis of new taxa within an integrative approach. Despite this, many new described species continue to be merely descriptive and without any reproducible statistical analysis to support these descriptions. We tested whether five species described as members of a species complex of the lizard genus Liolaemus from Patagonia, can be differentiated based on classical morphometric analyses and ecological niche modeling. Individuals were sampled from their type localities. Our results showed that the univariate tests and Principal Component Analyses (PCA) were more accurate to differentiate species compared to the Linear Discriminant Analyses (LDA). However, there were almost no morphometric differences between two of the analyzed species. Major differences were found in bioclimatic variables of four of the species through Maxent ENMs and PCA using the original worldclim variables. Our results partially support the hypothesis that species can be differentiated by classical morphometric analyses, and found a strong support for the hypothesis that these taxa can be differentiated through their bioclimatic niches. These two approaches based on repeatable statistical basis, can supplement qualitative descriptive diagnoses of new species of the genus Liolaemus.
... Avila et al. (2000) presented an updated checklist as part of a categorization of lizards and amphisbaenians, but the species number has continued to grow markedly, particulary in the genera Liolaemus and grosseorum (Avila et al. 2002), L. hermannunezi , L. inacayali (Avila et al. 2006c), L. josei , L. laurenti , L. lentus ), L. lineomaculatus (Ibargüengoytía et al. 2001, Christie 2002b, L. loboi (Abdala & Lobo 2006a), northwestern Liolaemus (Díaz Gómez 2007), L. olongasta (Sanabria et al. 2005), L. petrophilus (Avila et al. 2006c), L. pictus (Avila et al. 2006c), L. pseudoanomalus (Avila et al. 2003a), L. punmahuida (Avila & Pérez 2006), L. puritamensis , L. riojanus (Acosta & Murua, 2000), L. silvanae (Abdala & Díaz Gómez, 2001), L. somuncurae (Avila et al. 2007c), L. tenuis (Christie & Sage 2002), L. umbrifer (Abdala & Lobo 2007), L. uspallatensis (Buff et al. 2001), L. xanthoviridis (Minoli & Avila 2011a), L. yanalcu , L. wiegmannii (Parraga 2011), Aspronema dorsivittatum (Williams & Kacoliris 2011), Ophiodes intermedius (Herrera et al. 2001), Phymaturus verdugo (Abdala & Juarez 2007;Avila et al. 2007d), Pristidactylus achalensis ( Salas et al. 2004), Pristidactylus nigroiugulus (Avila et al. 2003b;Minoli & Avila 2011b), Teius suquiensis (Cabrera & Monguillot 2007), Tupinambis rufescens (Acosta & Gomez 2000), and Vanzosaura rubricauda (Aguirre & Céspedes 2001). c) Citations included in descriptions of new species (see new species in Table 2), including: Abdala (2002, 2003, 2005a,b), Abdala and Díaz Gómez (2006), Abdala and Lobo (2006b,c), , Abdala et al. ( , 2009Abdala et al. ( , 2010Abdala et al. ( , 2011Abdala et al. ( , 2012a, Avila (2003), Avila et al. (2003cAvila et al. ( , 2004bAvila et al. ( , 2007e, 2008Avila et al. ( , 2009Avila et al. ( , 2010aAvila et al. ( ,b, 2011bAvila et al. ( , 2012aAvila et al. ( ,b,c, 2013, Breitman et al. (2011b, c), Cabrera and Monguillot (2006), Cabrera (2012), Corbalán et al. (2009), Espinoza et al. (2000), Espinoza and Lobo (2003), Quinteros (2012), Quinteros et al. (2008a,b), Laspiur et al. (2007), Lobo and Espinoza (2004), Lobo and Abdala (2007), Lobo et al. (2010aLobo et al. ( , 2012a, Martínez et al. (2011), Martinez Oliver and Lobo (2002), Monguillot et al. (2006), Montero and Cespedez (2002), Nori et al. (2010b), , , Quinteros and Abdala (2011), Scolaro and Cei (2003), Scolaro and Cei (2006), Scolaro and Ibargüengoytía (2007), , , Scolaro and Tappari (2009), Scolaro and PincheiraDonoso (2010), Scolaro et al. (2012), Vega et al. (2008). ...
We update the list of lizards ofArgentina, reporting a total of 261 species from the country, arranged in 27 genera and 10 families. Introduced species and dubious or erroneous records are discussed. Taxonomic, nomenclatural and distributional comments are provided when required. Considering species of probable occurrence in the country (known to occur inBolivia,Brazil,ChileandParaguayat localities very close to the Argentinean border) and still undescribed taxa, we estimate that the total number of species inArgentinacould exceed 300 in the next few years.
Linnean shortfalls, or the discrepancy between formally described species and the number of existing species, imply noteworthy biodiversity conservation constraints. The case of Argentinian reptiles is unique in this context. The genus Liolaemus represents ~60% of the Argentine reptile fauna and has a current species description rate of 3.25 spp./year, leading to a significant increase in the number of known species. Filling Linnean shortfalls within this genus has revealed an extraordinary recent evolutionary radiation that strongly modifies the spatial accumulation patterns of richness and endemism, mainly in the Patagonian steppe and Monte ecoregions of Argentina. Thus, while 40 years ago none of the studied species was considered endemic at the ecoregional level, today the genus represents an essential element to define the southernmost terrestrial ecoregions of the world. Furthermore, the remarkable decrease in the average extent of occurrence (EOO) of Liolaemus species implies an increased extinction risk in light of threats caused by humans. Based on the thresholds for the IUCN Red List B1 criteria, and 11 well-studied clades of Liolaemus, we show that, while in 1980 87% of the described species would not qualify as threatened based on EOO, today 80% of the species have an EOO smaller than 20 000 km2. Therefore, they may qualify as threatened based on the B1 EOO thresholds, which demonstrates the importance of the recent increase of knowledge regarding the taxonomy, systematics and genetics of the group.
Habitat use can be used to predict morphological proportions among lizard species, building links
between form and function. Among the Tropidurinae, a species-rich clade of lizards, these ecomorphological
relations have not been studied for all the genera, and previous work still leaves some important gaps within this
topic. In this study, a large-scale ecomorphological assessment of 10 genera found within this clade was performed with respect to habitat use categories. The results of a multivariate analysis that considered 14 morphological traits showed that Stenocercus was the most morphologically diverse genus within this clade. Tropidurus was the genus that showed a greater diversity of specialized species regarding habitat use, showing representative species for each category and the respective specialized morphologies; however, this apparent diversity was limited in general terms and appeared to be restrained by evolutionary history. Further analyses in a phylogenetic context showed that the effect of habitat use was not strong enough to explain the morphological diversity of the Tropidurinae. Finally, a phylogenetic signal test showed that all individual traits were dependent on evolutionary history; additionally, the limb traits exhibited a stronger phylogenetic influence than the rest of the traits. The Tropidurinae were found to be a morphologically diverse group of lizards where the influence of habitat use on the morphology seems to be constrained by specific morphological limits imposed by the evolutionary history of each genus. Further studies are needed to assess the effect of habitat use in the morphology within each separate genus of this clade, especially for those for which information is scarce.
Los registros de la distribución geográfica y la diversidad de especies de lagartijas de la región Patagónica Argentina, se han incrementado en la última década. Como resultado de 13 años de intenso trabajo llevado a cabo por el Grupo de Herpetología Patagónica, se presenta una lista de especies actualizada, incluyendo información geográfica detallada con mapas de distribución en la provincia y datos de diversidad genética. Para esta revisión se utilizó como principal fuente de información la colección herpetológica LJAMM-CNP (CENPAT- CONICET) y registros adicionales presentes en la literatura y otras colecciones de museos. En la Provincia del Chubut se encuentran un total de 37 especies de lagartijas, que represen- tan siete géneros y dos especies de diferente género de anfisbaenas.
Within the Liolaemus boulengeri group or 'patch' group, there is a monophyletic clade named Liolaemus fitzingerii group. This clade is composed of large Liolaemus individuals, mostly psammophilus, oviparous and mainly insectivorous, distributed from central Río Negro and Neuquén to the south of Santa Cruz in Argentine Patagonia. We make a taxonomic and phylogenetic revision of the L. fitzingerii clade, describe two new species of the group, compare these results with phylogenetic hypotheses from the literature, and discuss the geographic distribution of species of the L. fitzingerii clade. The new species described here inhabit central and central-eastern Chubut Province, Argentina. These new species are easily distinguished from the other species of the L. fitzingerii group by a combination of morphological characters. The phylogenetic analyses support the description of these new species, because they are not closely related to the species with which they were previously confused. According to a new phylogenetic analysis of the L. fitzingerii clade, one of the new species, L. camarones sp. nov., has a relatively basal position within the group, whereas the other new species, L. shehuen sp. nov., is sister taxon of L. chehuachekenk. With these two new species, the L. fitzingerii clade is now composed of nine species, all of which are distributed in Argentine Patagonia.
We provide a checklist of lizards distributed in the Rio Negro province, northern Patagonia, Argentina.
Representatives of 45 species of lizards were found inhabiting this region as well as several still undescribed species. This list is a contribution to the still poorly known herpetofauna of the region.
RESUMEN Este trabajo resume las características geográficas, genéticas y de conservación de los saurios de la provincia de Santa Cruz; se presentan también comentarios acerca del estado del arte de la investigación en la provincia y las perspectivas futuras de los mismos. Utilizando ~ 1500 registros de presencia, se realiza un inventario biológico actualizado y se incluyen mapas de distribución, fotografías de las especies, comentarios genéticos y estatus de conservación para las lagartijas de Santa Cruz. El número de especies de lagartijas distribuidas en esta provincia es de 29 (27 especies y dos subespecies), sin embargo tres de éstas no presentan registros actuales. En base a los patrones genéticos se identifican al menos diez especies candidatas, linajes no descriptos que poseen suficiente diferenciación genética como para representar especies nuevas, cuyo estatus específico tiene que ser evaluado en futuras investigaciones. Este trabajo combina la información tradicionalmente presentada en inventarios biológicos con información genética, de distribución y estatus de conservación. Más allá de la novedosa integración realizada, este trabajo tiene la potencialidad de guiar el desarrollo de estudios detallados, en los que se puedan identificar (entre otras) zonas tanto para conservación como para explotación sustentable, así como también puede acelerar la descripción de nuevos taxa llenando los vacíos en el conoci-miento de la taxonomía alfa. ABSTRACT In this paper we present a revision of the geographic distribution, genetic characteristics and conservation status of lizards from the Santa Cruz province. We summarize the state-of-the-art in herpetological research, as well as future directions for research in this province. We present an updated checklist using ~1500 records of lizards, and include distributional maps, species photographs, comments on genetic variability and the conservation status of all recognized taxa. Twenty-nine species of lizards (27 species and two subspecies) are cited for this territory, although three of them lack of recent references, and from the genetic patterns we identify at least ten candidate species. These are defined as non-described lineages characterized by suffi-cient genetic differentiation to likely represent new species, but intensive taxonomic work is needed in order to confirm their specific status. In combining traditional information presented in checklists with genetic data, distributional patterns, and conservation status, we hope that this novel data integration approach will lead other investigators to develop similar studies. These types of studies represent the first step towards identification of priority conservation areas, as well as identification of those that are more appropriate for intense anthropogenic use; moreover this study will accelerate the description of new taxa, thereby filling gaps in alpha taxonomic knowledge.
