The recent taxonomic review of the legless, fossorial skink genus Acontias by
Daniels et al. (2006), using DNA sequence data, led to the erecting of the new
genus Microacontias for all the small-bodied taxa. These are Microacontias
lineatus lineatus, Microacontias lineatus tristis, Microacontias lineatus grayi and
Microacontias litoralis. The latter species was, however, nested in the lineatus
complex which raised questions about its true taxonomic status. Furthermore, the
taxonomic status of the lineatus complex is questioned following the poor
relationships between taxonomic diversity and morphological character states in
these sub-terrestrial skinks (Daniels et al., 2002, 2005, and 2006). This study
therefore addresses the following two questions: (i) should the taxonomic status
of the lineatus complex be accepted as it stands and (ii) is Microacontias litoralis
an independent species or does it form part of the lineatus complex. It is
hypothesized that M. l. lineatus and M. l. tristis do not represent separate taxa
(near identical morphology), while M. l. grayi and M. litoralis should be given
independent status. The diagnostic methods utilized were (i) Mitochondrial DNA
(mtDNA) sequence data (16S rRNA and Cytochrome b), (ii) morphometric data
comprising head and body measurements, and (iii) meristic data comprised of
various scale counts. The findings suggest that at least in terms of the gene
fragments sequenced, the subspecies of the lineatus complex are very closely
related. The phylogeny reports no distinct grouping of the taxa, nor could the
morphological analyses separate the taxa as independent evolutionary units. The
low genetic divergence but extensive color variation can be viewed as an
example of morphological diversification despite genetic conservatism.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:netd.ac.za/oai:union.ndltd.org:ufs/oai:etd.uovs.ac.za:etd-11192010-153706 |
| Date | 19 November 2010 |
| Creators | Janse van Vuuren, Lucas Cornelius |
| Contributors | Prof SR Daniels, Prof NJL Heideman |
| Publisher | University of the Free State |
| Source Sets | South African National ETD Portal |
| Language | en-uk |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | text |
| Format | application/pdf |
| Source | http://etd.uovs.ac.za//theses/available/etd-11192010-153706/restricted/ |
| Rights | unrestricted, I hereby certify that, if appropriate, I have obtained and attached hereto a written permission statement from the owner(s) of each third party copyrighted matter to be included in my thesis, dissertation, or project report, allowing distribution as specified below. I certify that the version I submitted is the same as that approved by my advisory committee. I hereby grant to University Free State or its agents the non-exclusive license to archive and make accessible, under the conditions specified below, my thesis, dissertation, or project report in whole or in part in all forms of media, now or hereafter known. I retain all other ownership rights to the copyright of the thesis, dissertation or project report. I also retain the right to use in future works (such as articles or books) all or part of this thesis, dissertation, or project report. |
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