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Endemic diversification in the mountains: genetic, morphological, and geographical differentiation of the Hemidactylus geckos in southwestern Arabia

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Abstract

In this study, we provide genetic, morphological, and geographical comparisons for 11 species of the southwestern Arabian radiation of Hemidactylus geckos, nine of which are endemic to the region. By using a coalescence-based species-tree reconstruction in combination with divergence time estimations and speciation probability testing, we show that most of the speciation events occurred in the Pliocene, which is more recent than previously thought based on calibrations of concatenated data sets. The current dating indicates that the changing climate at the beginning of the Pliocene, from hot and dry to cold and wet, is likely responsible for increased speciation in Hemidactylus. Analyses of geographic and altitudinal overlap of the species and their morphological differentiation show that most species do not occur in sympatry. Those that overlap geographically are usually differentiated by their altitudinal preference, head shape, body size, or their combination. Our results indicate that the topographically complex mountains of southwestern Arabia support a significant radiation of Hemidactylus geckos by allowing multiple allopatric speciation events to occur in a relatively small area. Consequently, we describe two new species endemic to the Asir Mountains of Saudi Arabia, H. alfarraji sp. n. and H. asirensis sp. n., and elevate two former subspecies of H. yerburii to a species level, H. montanus and H. pauciporosus.

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Acknowledgements

We would like to thank all curators who granted us access to or provided tissue samples of material housed in their collections, namely, B. Clarke, E. N. Arnold, and P. D. Campbell (BMNH); J. Vindum (CAS); R. Sindaco, and G. Boano (MCCI); G. Doria (MSNG); S. Scali (MSNM); A. Nistri (MZUF); J. Moravec (NMP); S. B. El Din (SMB); G. Köhler, and L. Acker (SMF). Special thanks are due to T. Mazuch (TMHC) for providing pictures of the syntype of H. yerburii. We are thankful to the Deanship of academic research at the Taif University for funding and issuing collection permit for sampling in Saudi Arabia (Grant No. 1–433–2108). We thank Omer Baeshen, Environment Protection Agency, Sana’a, Republic of Yemen, for issuing the collection permit (Ref 10/2007). The manuscript benefitted from comments of two anonymous reviewers, and the English was significantly improved by Jessica da Silva and Jody Taft. This work was supported by the Ministry of Culture of the Czech Republic under grant DKRVO 2016/15, National Museum, 00023272 (JŠ), and grant CGL2015-70390-P (MINECO-FEDER) (SC).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Zoology, National Museum, Cirkusová 1740, Prague, Czech Republic

    Jiří Šmíd

  2. Biology Department, Faculty of Science, Taif University 888, Taif, Saudi Arabia

    Mohammed Shobrak

  3. Allwetterzoo Münster, Sentruper Straße 315, 48161, Münster, Germany

    Thomas Wilms

  4. Staatliches Naturhistorisches Museum Braunschweig, Gaußstraße 22, 38106, Braunschweig, Germany

    Ulrich Joger

  5. Institute of Evolutionary Biology (CSIC-Universitat Pompeu Fabra), Passeig Marítim de la Barceloneta 37-49, Barcelona, Spain

    Salvador Carranza

  6. South African National Biodiversity Institute, Private Bag X7, Claremont, Cape Town, South Africa

    Jiří Šmíd

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Correspondence to Jiří Šmíd.

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Figure S1

Maximum likelihood tree of 259 unique haplotypes representing 339 individuals analyzed and based on the two mtDNA genes concatenated (1517 bp). The three monophyletic groups that are the subject of this study are highlighted in grey. Bootstrap values ≥ 70 are shown above branches. (JPG 4030 kb)

Figure S2

Head shape differentiation of the eleven analyzed Hemidactylus species along the first and second component of the PCA. Mean values and standard deviations are shown for both axes. (JPG 173 kb)

ESM 1

Table S1. List of collections and their acronyms from which material for this study has been examined either morphologically or genetically. Table S2. All material used for the genetic and morphological analyses and corresponding details such as GenBank accession numbers, morphological characters measured, MorphoBank picture numbers and taxonomic details of each specimen. ‘Sample code’ column refers to individual codes as shown in Fig. S1; ‘Analyses’ column indicates for which phylogenetic analyses each sample has been used; ‘Sex’ is coded 0 – female, 1 – male, 2 – juvenile; for details on the morphological characters measured see Methods; ‘Specimen details” column refers to taxonomic type information. Table S3. Mean uncorrected p distances (pairwise deletion) between all Hemidactylus species used for the *BEAST analyses based on fragments of the 12S gene (after Gblocks, below the diagonal) and cytb (above the diagonal). Table S4. Morphological comparison of the SW Arabian Hemidactylus species. Hemidactylus pauciporosus as a former subspecies of H. yerburii is added to the comparison. Mean ± standard deviation and sample sizes are given. (XLS 223 kb)

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Šmíd, J., Shobrak, M., Wilms, T. et al. Endemic diversification in the mountains: genetic, morphological, and geographical differentiation of the Hemidactylus geckos in southwestern Arabia. Org Divers Evol 17, 267–285 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s13127-016-0293-3

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s13127-016-0293-3

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