Origin and haplotype diversity of the northernmost population of Podarcis tauricus (Squamata, Lacertidae): Do lizards respond to climate change and go north?

oleh: Ivan Rehák, David Fischer, Lukáš Kratochvíl, Michail Rovatsos

Format: Article
Diterbitkan: Pensoft Publishers 2022-04-01

Deskripsi

The northernmost population of the Balkan wall lizards, Podarcis tauricus (Pallas, 1814) was recently discovered in the Czech Republic. We studied genetic variability in a mitochondrial marker cytochrome b to shed light on the origin of this remote population. We detected three unique haplotypes, close to those occurring in the populations of Podarcis tauricus from central/north Balkans and Hungary. Our data exclude the hypothesis of a single founder (a randomly or intentionally introduced pregnant female or her progeny) of the Czech population and indicate a native, autochthonous origin of the population or recent introduction/range expansion.