Rapid and repeated limb loss in a clade of scincid lizards.

ABSTRACT:

Background

The Australian scincid clade Lerista provides perhaps the best available model for studying limb reduction in squamates (lizards and snakes), comprising more than 75 species displaying a remarkable variety of digit configurations, from pentadactyl to entirely limbless conditions. We investigated the pattern and rate of limb reduction and loss in Lerista, employing a comprehensive phylogeny inferred from nucleotide sequences for a nuclear intron and six mitochondrial genes.

Results

The inferred phylogeny reveals extraordinary evolutionary mutability of limb morphology in Lerista. Ancestral state reconstructions indicate at least ten independent reductions in the number of digits from a pentadactyl condition, with a further seven reductions proceeding independently

SUBMITTER: Skinner A 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC2596130 | biostudies-literature | 2008 Nov

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature