52 
Records of the Australian Museum (2013) Vol. 65 
Fig. 1. Map showing sampling localities of material examined 
in this study, incorporating the full distributions of Ctenophorus 
mirrityana sp. nov., northern C. decresii, and southern C. decresii. 
territorial behaviour (Gibbons, 1979). Overall body form is 
highly conserved within the group and reflects adaptation 
to rocky habitats; all species have dorsoventrally flattened 
heads and bodies (less so in C. tjantjalka) and long hindlimbs 
(Houston & Hutchinson, 1998). While females and juveniles 
are similar in appearance among species, male coloration is 
an obvious distinguishing feature between species (Houston, 
1974), and is likely to be an important social signal within 
the C. decresii complex (Osborne, 2005; Stuart-Fox & 
Johnston, 2005). 
The tawny dragon, Ctenophorus decresii , exhibits 
remarkable variation in coloration both within and among 
populations (Houston, 1974; Teasdale etal ., 2013; McLean et 
al., submitted). The species inhabits rocky areas throughout 
the Flinders, Olary, and Mt Lofty Ranges, and on Kangaroo 
Island in SA. Peripheral isolated populations occur in the 
Barrier Range, western New South Wales (NSW, Fig. 1). A 
recent phylogeographic study revealed three genetic lineages 
within C. decresii , each corresponding with distinct male 
throat coloration (McLean et ah, submitted; Fig. 2). Two 
lineages occur in South Australia (SA) forming a northern 
and southern lineage (Fig. 1) consistent with the two “races” 
delineated by Houston (1974). The northern lineage is 
polymorphic, exhibiting four discrete male throat colour 
morphs within populations: orange, yellow, orange and 
yellow, and grey (Teasdale et al., 2013; Fig. 3), which is fixed 
at sexual maturity (Osborne, 2004; Stuart-Fox, unpublished 
data). Conversely, the southern lineage is monomorphic; all 
males have blue throats with yellow to orange coloration 
along the gular fold (McLean et al. , submitted; Fig. 3). 
Secondary contact between the northern and southern 
lineage was found centred on the Barossa Valley, SA. While 
limited genetic introgression was evident at the contact 
zone, no phenotypic intermediates were found, suggesting 
that potential pre- or post-zygotic barriers to gene flow may 
exist between the northern and southern lineages (McLean 
etal., submitted). 
‘NSW 1 
i C. tjantjalka 
C. vadnappa 
| C. fionni 
‘Northern 5 
‘Southern 5 
i C. rufescens 
0.005 
Fig. 2. Combined mtDNA (ND4) and nuDNA (a-enolase, BACH1, 
FSHR, MKL1, SLC8A1) sequence data tree, rooted with C. pictus 
(not shown). Grey branches represent C. decresii lineages. Asterisks 
indicate posterior probabilities > 0.95 generated from MrBayes 
and * BEAST analyses respectively, unless otherwise indicated. 
The third lineage, representing the isolated NSW 
populations, is further distinguishable by unique throat 
coloration; males have cream throats with a black central 
stripe and orange flushes (Fig. 3). The “NSW lineage” 
exhibited substantial molecular differentiation with 7.1-9.6% 
corrected mtDNA (ND4) net sequence divergence between 
NSW and SA populations (McLean et ah, submitted). 
Furthermore, the multi-locus phylogenetic analyses 
strongly indicated polyphyly of C. decresii , with the NSW 
lineage being basal and sister to all other members of the 
species group (McLean et al., submitted; Fig. 2). Applying 
a conservative mitochondrial calibration of 2% sequence 
divergence per million years, this level of divergence 
suggests separation during the Pliocene, approximately 5-3.5 
Mya, a period of cladogenesis broadly consistent with that 
for C. fionni, C. tjantjalka, and C. vadnappa (7-4.8 Mya; 
Melville etal., 2001; Hugall etal., 2008; Chen etal., 2012). 
