Proteic and Morphological Variations in Ocellated Lizards (Lacertidae): a Complex of Species Across the Strait of Gibraltar

Comptes Rendus de l'Academie des Sciences - Serie III Volume 319, Issue 8, 1996, Pages 737-746

ISSN: 07644469

PROTEIC AND MORPHOLOGICAL VARIATIONS IN OCELLATED LIZARDS (LACERTIDAE): A COMPLEX OF SPECIES ACROSS THE STRAIT OF GIBRALTAR

Mateo, José Antonio; López-Jurado, Luis Felipe; Guillaume, Claude P

Lab. biogeographie ecologie vetebres, EPHE, UM II, case courrier 094, place Eugene-Bataillon, F-34095 Montpellier Cedex 5, France

Abstract

We have studied protein and morphological variation patterns in lizards belonging to several European and African populations of the ocellated lizard complex, a group of species distributed in the western Mediterranean region. European ocellated lizard (Lacerta lepida ssp. lepida, iberica, nevadensis) are highly variable in body shape, folidosis, colour and dentition characteristics along the large latitudinal range of their distribution area, but relatively homogeneous for electrophoretic characteristics. African ocellated lizard hardly present any variation in folidotic characteristics along their distribution area - a narrow strip between the Mediterranean Sea and the Sahara Desert cut into 2 isolated halves by the extremely arid valley of the Moulauya -, but electrophoretic results reveal important differences between Algero- Tunisian (Lacerta pater) and Moroccan (Lacerta tangitana [new combination]) populations. These differences are as large as those existing between Moroccan and European populations, two well differentiated species. This pattern of distribution, with differentiated species in the Iberian peninsula, Moroccan mountains and Algero-Tunisian Tell mountains, is also common in other species complexes and suggests the presence of an important geographic barrier between eastern and western Maghreb at the same time as the opening of the Strait of Gibraltar.