Extreme genetic diversity in the lizard Atlantolacerta andreanskyi (Werner, 1929): A montane cryptic species complex

Abstract

[Background] Atlantolacerta andreanskyi is an enigmatic lacertid lizard that, according to the most recent molecular analyses, belongs to the tribe Eremiadini, family Lacertidae. It is a mountain specialist, restricted to areas above 2400 m of the High Atlas Mountains of Morocco with apparently no connection between the different populations. In order to investigate its phylogeography, 92 specimens of A. andreanskyi were analyzed from eight different populations across the distribution range of the species for up to 1108 base pairs of mitochondrial DNA (12S, ND4 and flanking tRNA-His) and 2585 base pairs of nuclear DNA including five loci (PDC, ACM4, C-MOS, RAG1, MC1R).

[Results] The results obtained with both concatenated and coalescent approaches and clustering methods, clearly show that all the populations analyzed present a very high level of genetic differentiation for the mitochondrial markers used and are also generally differentiated at the nuclear level.

[Conclusions] These results indicate that A. andreanskyi is an additional example of a montane species complex.