Phylogeny and geographic distribution of rock lizards (Lacertidae, Reptilia) in Alborz mountain range

Abstract

Rock lizards of the genus Darevskia have long been an important model object for study of reptile evolution. To understand the overall picture, it is important to know how bisexual and parthenogenetic species are distributed within this genus. The ranges of Caucasian species of rock lizards have been studied for a long time and in detail. However, recent attention to the species inhabiting the territory of Iran has been attracted after the description of several new species in 2013. As part of the continuation of these studies, we studied the distribution and genetic diversity of five species of lizards of the Darevskia genus along the Alborz mountain range in Iran: D. chlorogaster, D. caspica, D. defilippii, D. schaekeli and D. raddei. In the course of this, we discovered new localities of D. defilippii that are outside their known range. We assessed the phylogenetic relationships between the studied species according to the ND4 – Leu tRNA region of mitochondrial DNA and found a relatively high level of genetic variability in D. defilippii and D. chlorogaster, while D. raddei, despite its wide distribution, has low variability. In general, the phylogenetic position of the studied species is somewhat different from that described by Ahmadzadeh et al. (2013).