A new species of the Cyrtodactylus brevipalmatus group (Squamata, Gekkonidae) from the uplands of western Thailand

By

Grismer, Lee
Rujirawan, Attapol
Chomdej, Siriwadee
Suwannapoom, Chatmongkon
Yodthong, Siriporn
Aksornneam, Akrachai
Aowphol, Anchalee

Type

Article

Date of Publication

2023

Original Publication

ZooKeys

Volume

1141

Pages

93--118

Subjects

Bent-toed gecko , Genetics , Indochina , integrative taxonomy , Montane forests , Morphology

Contributed by

Pensoft Publishers

Language

English

Published by

Sofia, Bulgaria Pensoft Publishers

Identifiers

DOI: https://doi.org/10.3897/zookeys.1141.97624

 

Abstract

An integrative systematic analysis recovered a new species of the Cyrtodactylus brevipalmatus group from the uplands of Thong Pha Phum National Park, Kanchanaburi Province in western Thailand. Cyrtodactylus thongphaphumensissp. nov. is deeply embedded within the brevipalmatus group, bearing an uncorrected pairwise sequence divergence of 7.6–22.3% from all other species based on a 1,386 base pair segment of the mitochondrial NADH dehydrogenase subunit 2 gene (ND2) and adjacent tRNAs. It is diagnosable from all other species in the brevipalmatus group by statistically significant mean differences in meristic and normalized morphometric characters as well as differences in categorical morphology. A multiple factor analysis recovered its unique and non-overlapping placement in morphospace as statistically significantly different from that of all other species in the brevipalmatus group. The description of this new species contributes to a growing body of literature underscoring the high degree of herpetological diversity and endemism across the sky-island archipelagos of upland montane tropical forest habitats in Thailand, which like all other upland tropical landscapes, are becoming some of the most imperiled ecosystems on the planet.