The enigmatic Crimean green lizard (<i>Lacerta viridis magnifica</i>) is extinct but not valid: Mitogenomics of a 120‐year‐old museum specimen reveals historical introduction
Journal: Journal of Zoological Systematics & Evolutionary Research
Year: 2019

It has been proposed that Lacerta viridis magnifica Sobolevssky, 1930 represents an extinct species or subspecies of green lizard endemic to the southern Crimea. Using NGS protocols optimized for heavily degraded DNA, we sequenced the complete mitogenome of one of the originally formalin-preserved specimens collected in the late 19th century. A comparison with sequence data of other green lizards revealed that L. v. magnifica is a junior synonym of the northern subspecies of the western green li