McLean et al .: A new dragon lizard from New South Wales 
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Table 1 . Morphometric measurements and meristic counts used in this study. 
abbreviation 
definition of character 
SVL 
Snout-vent length 
TL 
Tail length (unbroken tails only) 
AG 
Axilla-groin length 
HL 
Head length, from tip of snout to posterior of jaw bone 
HW 
Head width at widest point 
HD 
Head depth at deepest point 
EYE 
Eye diameter 
SL 
Snout length from tip of snout to anterior of eye 
JL 
Jaw length from posterior of eye to posterior of jaw bone 
NW 
Width between nostrils 
HUML 
Humerus length 
RADL 
Radius length 
HAND 
Hand length from wrist to tip of fourth finger 
FING 
Fourth finger length 
FEML 
Femur length 
TIBL 
Tibia length 
FOOT 
Foot length from ankle to tip of fourth toe 
TOE 
Fourth toe length 
SUPRA 
Number of supralabial scales 
INFRA 
Number of infralabial scales 
ROSNAS 
Number of scales between rostral and nasal 
SUPRANAS 
Number of scales between supralabial and nasal 
INTERNAS 
Number of intemasal scales across the top of the snout 
SDL 
Number of subdigital lamellae 
FP 
Number of femoral pores (males only) 
Here we present a taxonomic revision of C. decresii sensu 
lato and conduct a detailed morphological assessment in light 
of the phylogenetic hypothesis arising from consideration 
of the molecular data. Based on significant genetic, colour, 
and body form divergence, we describe a new member of 
the C. decresii species complex from western NSW. We 
also recognize the northern and southern lineages of C. 
decresii as potentially warranting sub-specific status based 
on phenotypic divergence between the two lineages and a 
lack of phenotypic admixture at the contact zone. However, 
further work characterising clines in phenotypic and genetic 
markers across the contact zone is needed to resolve the 
taxonomic and conservation status of these two SA lineages. 
Materials and methods 
measurement to SVL. In addition, males and females were 
analysed separately to account for sexual dimorphism. After 
confirming that there were no strong correlations between 
variables (PROC CORR; SAS 9.3), we assessed whether 
individuals clustered into the five species/lineages based on 
morphology using a discriminant function analysis (DFA; 
PROC DISCRIM; SAS 9.3). All measurements and meristic 
counts were included as response variables in the analysis, 
with the exception of TL, which was excluded due to the 
large number of individuals with broken tails (in total, 24 
variables for males and 23 variables for females; Table 1). 
We performed Tukey’s post hoc tests and employed false 
discovery rate (FDR) correction for multiple tests (PROC 
MULTTEST; SAS 9.3) to determine which variables differed 
significantly among taxa. 
Morphological analysis was based on morphometric 
measurements and meristic counts of preserved material 
held in the Australian Museum, Sydney (AMS), South 
Australian Museum (SAM), and Museum Victoria (NMV). 
Morphological character definitions and abbreviations are 
listed in Table 1. All measurements were made with digital 
callipers to the nearest 0.1 mm, with the exception of tail 
length (TL) which was to the nearest 0.5 mm (unbroken 
tails only). We examined all available adult specimens of 
the new taxon (N = 51) along with a representative sample 
of northern (N = 70) and southern (N = 40) C. decresii , 
and a small number of C.fionni (N = 15) and C. vadnappa 
(N = 15) for interspecific comparison (Appendix 1; Fig. 
1). Specimens with SVL >65 mm for males and >60 mm 
for females were considered to be adults. For analysis, 
all morphometric measurements were adjusted relative 
to snout-vent length (SVL) by taking the ratio of each 
Results 
Discrimination of the five taxa ( Ctenophorus mirrityana sp. 
nov., northern C. decresii , southern C. decresii , C.fionni , and 
C. vadnappa ) was highly significant (males: Wilks’ X =0.027, 
F 96 296 = 4.16, P<0.0001; females: Wilks’ ^ = 0.049, F 92;232 = 
2.89, P < 0.0001), and a combination of canonical variables 
1 (can 1 ) and 2 {can 2) explained 82.07% and 86.20% of 
the variation for males and females respectively (Table 2). 
The overall correct assignment rate for males was 70%, 
with 94.4% of C. mirrityana sp. nov., 90.5% of southern C. 
decresii , 53.5% of northern C. decresii , 50% of C.fionni , and 
60% of C. vadnappa specimens assigned correctly. Notably, 
23.3% of northern C. decresii specimens were incorrectly 
grouped with C. fionni , while only 4.6% were grouped 
with southern C. decresii. Correct identification rate was 
lower for females than for males (50% overall) with 74.2% 
