The biogeography of bent-toed geckos, Cyrtodactylus (Squamata: Gekkonidae).

ABSTRACT: The gekkonid genus Cyrtodactylus is the third largest vertebrate genus on the planet with well over 300 species that range across at least eight biogeographic regions from South Asia to Melanesia. The ecological and morphological plasticity within the genus, has contributed to its ability to disperse across ephemeral seaways, river systems, basins, land bridges, and mountain ranges-followed by in situ diversification within specific geographic areas. Ancestral ranges were reconstructed on a mitochondrial phylogeny with 346 described and undescribed species from which it was inferred that Cyrtodactylus evolved in a proto-Himalaya region during the early Eocene. From there, it dispersed to what is currently Indoburma and Indochina during the mid-Eocene-the latter becomin

SUBMITTER: Grismer LL 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC8953499 | biostudies-literature | 2022

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature