Abstract

MORENO-BARAJAS, Ruth; RODRIGUEZ-ROMERO, Felipe; VELAZQUEZ-RODRIGUEZ, Alma  and  ARAGON-MARTINEZ, Andrés. Geographical variation in Phrynosoma orbiculare (Sauria: Phrynosomatidae): subspecies analysis. Acta Zool. Mex [online]. 2013, vol.29, n.1, pp.129-143. ISSN 2448-8445.

For the Phrynosoma orbiculare complex six subspecies have been described that are distributed from the north to the southeast of the Mexican Plateau. Since, the description of the group, the taxonomic status of the subspecies of P. orbiculare has been debated. The objective of this study was to assess the morphological variation of the subspecies described; using analysis of linear and geometric morphometrics combined with principal component analysis and canonical correlation. The linear morphometric analysis showed a clear definition, but with geometric morphometrics, using canonical variance analysis, significant differences were obtained for three subspecies, P. o. orientale, P. o. durangoensis and P. o. boucardi. The thin plate spline showed that main deformation is in the snout and horns combined. Phrynosoma. o. orientale is distributed in the Sierra Madre Oriental and P. o. durangoensis in the Sierra Madre Occidental. Both subspecies are isolated by the Central Mexican Plateu and diverged as a result of Neogene vicariance. So if subspecies are isolated can be considered as separate entities since there is no gene flow between them.

Keywords : Phrynosoma orbiculare; geometric morphometrics; variation; subspecies; multivariate statistics.

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