Long-distance colonization and radiation in gekkonid lizards, Tarentola (Reptilia: Gekkonidae), revealed by mitochondrial DNA sequences

• Published in: Proceedings of the Royal Society of London. Series B: Biological Sciences
• Main Authors: Carranza, Salvador, Arnold, E. N., Mateo, José Antonio, López-Jurado, L. F.
• Other Authors: 6603678813, 7202888127, 7102972563, 6603237373
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: 2017
• Subjects: 24 Ciencias de la vida; 2401 Biología animal (zoología); 240116 Herpetología; North Atlantic
• Online Access: http://hdl.handle.net/10553/19921; https://doi.org/10.1098/rspb.2000.1050

Morphological systematics makes it clear that many non-volant animal groups have undergone extensive transmarine dispersal with subsequent radiation in new, often island, areas. However, details of such events are often lacking. Here we use partial DNA sequences derived from the mitochondrial cytochrome b and 12S rRNA genes (up to 684 and 320 bp, respectively) to trace migration and speciation in Tarentola geckos, a primarily North African clade which has invaded many of the warmer islands in the North Atlantic Ocean. There were four main invasions of archipelagos presumably by rafting.