Spotlight on islands: on the origin and diversification of an ancient lineage of the Italian wall lizard Podarcis siculus in the western Pontine Islands.

ABSTRACT: Groups of proximate continental islands may conceal more tangled phylogeographic patterns than oceanic archipelagos as a consequence of repeated sea level changes, which allow populations to experience gene flow during periods of low sea level stands and isolation by vicariant mechanisms during periods of high sea level stands. Here, we describe for the first time an ancient and diverging lineage of the Italian wall lizard Podarcis siculus from the western Pontine Islands. We used nuclear and mitochondrial DNA sequences of 156 individuals with the aim of unraveling their phylogenetic position, while microsatellite loci were used to test several a priori insular biogeographic models of migration with empirical data. Our results suggest that the western Pontine populations colonized the isla

SUBMITTER: Senczuk G 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6181948 | biostudies-literature | 2018 Oct

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature